Mike Eby

Monopsony—the Other Silent Killer

This is the edited transcript of the presentation by Mike Eby to Panel 2, “Peace Through Development,” of the Schiller Institute’s Nov. 22 conference, “For World Peace—Stop the Danger of Nuclear War: Third Seminar of Political and Social Leaders of the World.”

Mike Eby, on a seventh-generation family dairy farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is Chairman of the National Dairy Producers’ Organization, Executive Director of the Organization for Competitive Markets, and Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union.

The full proceedings of the conference are available at the Schiller Institute website.

I’ve titled my talk, “Monopsony, the Other Silent Killer,” for in agriculture, anti-trust is alive and well. The disappearance of family-sized independent farmers is quite silent. My name is Mike Eby. I’m a former dairy farmer of 17 years. My wife and I and four children own and operate a bicentennial farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.

In 2016, we sold our purebred Holstein herd simply because milk was not worth what it cost to make. Being Chairman of the National Dairy Producers’ Organization, I had a front-row seat to the alleged corruption going on in the dairy industry, by way of the milk co-ops, and wanted nothing to do with what that was unleashing across the nation, as mergers and acquisitions were becoming commonplace. Selling the cows gave me an escape and provided me the time and focus on fighting this alleged monopsony head on.

In 2016, I led a group of 116 farmers to Federal Court in Burlington, Vermont [in an anti-trust litigation —ed.]. The complaint, named Sitts vs. DFA [Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.], alleged both monopsony and conspiracy, naming five other large milk co-ops and 16 processors, colluding to pay the farmers only the Most Favored Nation pricing, i.e., the lowest price.

Cooperatives have only one purpose, as described in the 1922 Capper-Volstead Act. In its language, it is clear that the co-op is to operate for the mutual benefit of its members, and not to the entity itself. Sitts vs. DFA litigation came to an abrupt end in 2020, soon after the Department of Justice filed an amicus brief stating this very fact of the Capper-Volstead—benefit the members. If it could be proven otherwise in court, DFA would lose its Capper-Volstead co-op exemption, making it then subject to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act law. With that, the lawsuit settled out of court two days before going to trial. DFA tells their members that defending lawsuits is just the cost of doing business.

It was at this time I was offered the position of Executive Director of the OCM, the Organization for Competitive Markets, as well as Vice President of the Pennsylvania Farmers’ Union. The anti-trust fight lives on in these roles as I vet farmers as potential class reps for litigation, who want to hold accountable their own cooperative. I said earlier that monopsony is the other silent killer. The silent part is that it’s more difficult to see it coming. Unlike monopoly that stares you in the face, monopsony eliminates competition by eliminating buyers. President Joe Biden is quoted as saying, “They once competed for consumers. Now, monopsonists consume their competitors.”

It is typically a slow process taking a while to develop. By the time it is realized, the buying monopsonist transitions to a monopolist, selling products and gouging consumers. Unfortunately, as we are all aware, anti-trust issues are not limited to the USA. Just this past July, OCM hosted during our annual conference, a public figure from Australia, who informed us that JBS sails out into international waters to collude.

Centralized power of corporations eliminating the voice of independents leads to NGOs and governments aligning their agendas. We see this very clearly in the push to be “carbon-neutral by 2050.” We see our dairy leaders wrapped up in the hype with organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, and the Global Roundtable meeting in Davos, Switzerland, once a secret, is now on full display as the agenda of “comply or else.”

Worse yet, they are using farmer promotion check-off dollars to propel this notion of carbon credits as the new revenue source. They boast that someday, methane will be worth more than milk. In my opinion, carbon credits are nothing more than a new currency mirroring the image of crypto-currency, having the same fate as FTX.

This carbon credit currency is a global currency. The UK is already seeking willing U.S. farmers to construct a European manure digester in exchange for those carbon credits. Not to be outdone, USA banks are financing the erection of digesters on highly leveraged farms as a way to recoup original investment.

In conclusion, we find ourselves where we are today:

1. The power is in the hands of the few.

2. Global banks are calling the shots around the world.

3. This leads to Russian President Putin reminding the world it’s not financing that will rule the day, but rather food and fuel.

We are learning a lesson the hard way that the “rules-based order,” which is demanded by the speculative banks of London and Wall Street, and enforced by the United States military and NATO, is being rejected. As Harley Schlanger said, “We need discussion and real dialogue typified by what the Indonesian President did with the G-20 conference. To steer it away from two blocs, to try to get real discussion.”

We need to continue to educate others with events similar to this, and with that, I’d like to thank Helga for co-sponsoring these critical international discussions.