I can only speculate that the Obama plan to cut subsidies to agribusiness has many complementary sectors frightened.

And there are very few optimistic voices out there to assuage our fears. Least of all from government.

A year ago, I could buy milk for $3.99 a gallon. Last weekend, I got it for $1.99 a gallon. I can’t believe the $2/gallon difference was SOLELY due to oil prices. Ar any rate, we started rationing milk a bit more at our house (and we’re big milk drinkers, drinking milk more for pleasure than for simple health). So count us in the group that’s buying less milk.

And as Woodboy noted, we’re eating out less, although we still use a lot of cheese at home.

Yeah–it is the prices that are causing dairys problems. I feel for the individuals affected, but I also think that agriculture is a sector sorely in need of some recalibration re: supply and demand.

In my local area, when prices go up for some outside reason, say oil prices affecting shipping, the local businesses are not prone to lowering them when the situation has resolved itself. Milk is still between $4 and $5 a gallon. You can buy lesser quality for $3.50 but it doesn’t last as long or taste as good. We are buying less fresh milk because of my son developing a sensitivity to it, but not cheeses and other dairy products. We still buy lots of yogurts and good real cheeses, and real butter.
There are also the periodical health claims that dairy is not good for you. Just as the low carb craze hurt bread sales, any anti dairy health craze will eventually affect sales.

Ditto. And the banking and real estate sectors, too.

One day, the supply-and-demand calibration will catch up to “bad-cop” IT architects who don’t believe the client is always right, and then I’ll be in trouble. But for now, there’s still a big demand amongst clients who want their IT consultants to yell at them and tell them they’re being very, very bad. And I’m more than willing to fill that demand…

:) But Utah’s unemployment rate isn’t that bad; the price of gas it low and this dairy delivers to Utah. I just think this is fear. The one thing I like about this economic crisis is that we as a people might, might simplify our lives.

I think there is no sector in this economy that is not hurting. There may be pockets doing ok such as people who do foreclosures, but overall everyone is hurting. I am in the biotech business and layoffs are rampant due to inability to raise money. Pharmaceutical companies are laying off folks as people are using less drugs. Amazing how things cascade through the economy.

Milk is on sale here in Indy, $1 for a half gallon.

Now that Obama has rammed through his $1T of spending, things will start to get better. Indeed, it was less than a week after the Omnibarf bill passed that he changed his rhetoric from worst-financial-crisis-since-the-GD to not-as-bad-as-people-are-saying. Even Larry Summers has been pulled out of the witness protection program, and Christy can’t be far behind.