Dairy Industry Under Scrutiny

ST. ALBANS, Vt.—Testifying before a Senate Judiciary Committee, Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney, who head the Justice Department’s antitrust division, stated the government needs to take a closer look at the dairy industry’s anticompetitive practices.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, at issue is whether some of the largest players in the dairy industry, including Dean Foods Co. of Dallas, a large milk processor, and Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., a Kansas City, Mo., dairy-farmer cooperative, are exercising too much power in the market and causing farmers' milk prices to be depressed.