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Bill Sodeman writes about management, mobile computing and information systems

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The global milk shortage

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Posted Tuesday, 4 September 2007, 09:18 HST @721

People are stealing cows in Wisconsin?

Starbucks sells more milk than coffee?

Apparently this is all true. As some regional and national standards of living continue to rise around the world, milk consumption has surged and milk prices have followed suit, according to this article in the New York Times:

What is unusual, and somewhat confusing, about the milk boom compared with other booming commodities is that milk is not like oil: You cannot stick it in barrels and stockpile it. It goes sour. Even in powder form, the most commoditized version, milk has a shelf life. As a result, only about 7 percent of all the milk produced globally is traded across borders. The rest is consumed in domestic markets, which are protected by geography and just as often by tariffs or subsidies.

One of my favorite memories from my move to Honolulu was my first trip to the Safeway. The price of milk was a shocker. It still is… then again, I don’t drink much milk… except when I go to Starbucks.

Tags: economy, Hawaii, Honolulu, milk, Starbucks, USA, Wisconsin
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