Corporate collusion has enabled dairy executives to milk the profits

The New York Times reports that Gregg L. Engles is about to step aside as CEO of Dean Foods after years of generous paychecks as his company’s fortunes tumbled. He averaged $20m in compensation for each of the last 6 years while company stock fell on average 11% per year. A long running anti-trust lawsuit claimed Engles cut a deal with Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) to eliminate competition in the eastern states of the US. DFA was contracted to supply all the raw milk to Dean Foods and eliminate the competition. Dean Foods has settled its law suits with farmers but the legal battle continues against DFA.

The deal resulted in a small group of executives milking huge sums of money while farmers were paid suppressed prices for their milk. Read the full story here