Milk Wars: An American History of Dairy Farmers, Truckers, Gangsters and Regulators

This history of the American dairy industry argues that traditional family dairy farmers could not halt the forces driving consolidation or the special interests scrambling for a bigger slice of the dairy dollar. Those interests ranged from Teamsters and mafiosos to state and federal regulators and activists, some of whom worked to impose "marketplace magic." Others were determined to "Let Dairy Die" in the cause of combating global warming.

Some parts of the milk story are new; most are not. A pure milk movement champion wrote in 1913, "The crowding-out of the small farmer is not to be lightly regarded, for he has human rights and society must grant him economic justice." The latter has not occurred, reflecting a polarization that is not only partisan but also geographic--rural red America vs. urban blue America.