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America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

foodandwine.com

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Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#71
post #42
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there is no evidence that gluten is bad for you if you're not gluten-sensitive.

Yet gluten sensitivity is on the rise

Things can seem to be on the rise when awareness and detection improve. For example: the number of known exoplanets grows by the day, but they existed before we knew about them.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use pea milk with our kids because they're lactose intolerant. Pediatrician recommended as long as they're getting more protein and fat elsewhere in their diet (which they do). It doesn't hurt that peas don't care how they're raised and treated to produce milk. Dairy milk is not nutritionally necessary in any age cohort. If you enjoy it, that's fine of course, but it isn't required if you don't.

I just think you're damaging your kids by not giving them milk, which is the most nutritious thing you can feed a kid. Also, your kids may be lactose intolerant due to other stuff in their diet, like gluten or other toxins in plant-based foods that lead to a leaky gut.

Ah of course, your robust remote medical diagnosis of "leaky gut" seems much more suitable than an actual assessment by an actual physician.

It's fine to research and make decisions about your diet which are in line with your own understanding, philosophy, and dietary requirements. Please don't pretend that your views on this are particularly useful for others.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the messages in that movie really bother me just because it's so unrelatable as a man. Many women I know see it as just a prince charming story and like it because of that. Aside from the corporate raiding married man picking up prostitutes on business travel, I think I'd find it more relatable if there was a world where women were reliably scooping up men while the man's life was in shambles and changing their l…

Would you chase after a fat, ugly, disgusting woman? I'm guessing no unless you were incredibly desperate. Most women are attracted to a man's status and success the way most men are attracted to physical beauty. You don't need a lot of money, but women don't want to hang around with loser.

> Most women are attracted to a man's status and success the way most men are attracted to physical beauty.

oh wow, I never heard of that happening before thanks for the tip.

Like I said, the movie itself would be more relatable if any possibility of the circumstances were relatable for a man. For women its practical to dream about a man choosing them for qualities they were born with while the man created every circumstance in their own life to obtain wealth and security before eventually decide to choose that woman, and that movie caters to that. It took me a while to figure out why certain romance movies were unappealing and predictably so between genders, and that's what it is.

I don't actually care about or mind the reality. The extent of my point is that watching depictions of it aren't interesting when no part of it is something you can dream about and have a chance of it happening.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#74
post #28
post #3

A counterpoint: these companies were recently bought by private equity firm KKR Co, the same company that loaded up Toys 'R Us with debt and then liquidated it. https://mobile.twitter.com/rhinosoros/status/121424602712711... This bankruptcy filling might just be negotiation in the courts to reduce pension obligations.

I don't understand how bigger waves haven't yet been made about these locusts. Where's the New York Times expose? Proposals by Congress on how to make this vampirism illegal? Literally anything?

If you want to fix this going forward, make all new defined-benefit pensions plans illegal, as we have amply demonstrated that they can't be trusted over the course of a lifetime. Putting your future in the hands of an automaker was bad enough; why do we expect someone to put their future in the hands of a dairy?

A defined-contribution pension plan, where you end up actually owning the assets in question, is the only way to be sure that no one will shrink your pension in bankruptcy, or (for a public pension) reduce them by legislative fiat.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#76
post #28
post #3

A counterpoint: these companies were recently bought by private equity firm KKR Co, the same company that loaded up Toys 'R Us with debt and then liquidated it. https://mobile.twitter.com/rhinosoros/status/121424602712711... This bankruptcy filling might just be negotiation in the courts to reduce pension obligations.

I don't understand how bigger waves haven't yet been made about these locusts. Where's the New York Times expose? Proposals by Congress on how to make this vampirism illegal? Literally anything?

I mean it’s been a huge thing that people have known about for decades. Romney was one of them. Barbarians at the Gate is a popular book on KKR in particular and was made into a movie.

As to why it’s not illegal... there’s both the realpolitik “who are friends with congresspeople” as well as the wonky “how do you make it illegal? It’s just combining a lot of elements of capitalism”

The way you make it illegal, of course, is preventing stuff like directors being able to get paid big bonuses for buyouts (basically bribes to accept LBOs), by properly classifying such movements as stealing assets from the company

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#78
Milk as a beverage is in decline, but milk as a product has been steadily growing as a raw material (cheese, yoghurt, etc.) The companies in trouble are those that were too concentrated in beverage milk and failed to diversify their business models to stay relevant.

Some of these companies troubles also smell badly of PE shenanigans with over leveraged debt deals and other PE card tricks.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#79
post #28
post #3

A counterpoint: these companies were recently bought by private equity firm KKR Co, the same company that loaded up Toys 'R Us with debt and then liquidated it. https://mobile.twitter.com/rhinosoros/status/121424602712711... This bankruptcy filling might just be negotiation in the courts to reduce pension obligations.

I don't understand how bigger waves haven't yet been made about these locusts. Where's the New York Times expose? Proposals by Congress on how to make this vampirism illegal? Literally anything?

Truly. Most terrorists have nothing over these guys.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#80

> "Despite our numerous achievements during the past 18 months, the Company continues to be impacted by the rising cost of raw milk..." Out of curiosity, how much is a US dairy farmer paid for a gallon of milk?

Never mind, found this Guardian article from 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2018/jun/09/...

> "In 2016, Canadian farmers received an average price of C$0.79 a litre for milk, compared with C$0.49 on average for US farmers."

So it appears that US farmers are paid roughly the same or slightly more than their European counterparts.

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