Under a dilapidated farm building in Gloucester County, Owen Pool tugs at his sweat-stained "Got Milk?" cap, stretches out his bad knee, and tries to make sense of the dairy industry.
Pool says he's losing money every time he milks a cow, thanks to a bewildering mix of circumstances that includes a U.S. cheese surplus, the decline of consumer demand in China, and the lack of precipitation in Australia last year.
"I talk to this economist in D.C., to try and stay on top of things," said the 71-year-old dairy farmer. "The way they price milk is so complicated the average farmer has no idea what's going on. I'm probably one of the most knowledgeable. And I don't understand it entirely."
As the base rate the federal government sets for milk fell below 1980 levels last year - despite the fact that a gallon of milk at the supermarket costs more than three times what it did then - dairy farmers across the country have taken historic losses and in many cases are going out of business.
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