Milk is precious, so why dump it?

In Canada the cost of milk is much too high and getting higher. In many parts of the world milk is available, but at a cost beyond the reach of the consumers.

The bean counters in this industry defend these high costs as reasonable and claim that dumping milk is a solution to overproduction. How insane is that conclusion, when starvation is at the door of hundreds of millions of people in the world?

Just look to the less-developed regions in Africa, Asia, the Americas and right here in Canada, we see starvation.

Milk is a food that can be converted to other food products. It can be dehydrated and stored for a long time; it can be made into cheese, butter and yogurt; it can be consumed whole. It’s a marvellous food.

The milk board agencies that set the regulations for the industry say dumping lifesaving food is the answer.

Surely the great minds that exist in Ottawa and Washington and London and Berlin can figure out how to feed the hungry rather than dumping this wonderful food down the drain.

The fact that the milk producers, who only get 90 cents for a product that sells for $7 on the store shelves, illustrate that the regulators are involved in excess profit-taking.

Fearing that excess supply will reduce the selling price and in turn reduce the profit-taking, these same regulators say dumping is OK … is it?

Brian McCarthy Esquimalt