32 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 389 



under some conditions consumers in exercising their free choice would not be 

 particularly interested whether the supply were maintained or not. 



As a matter of public policy- the maintenance of a healthy people is of major 

 concern. It would seem that as a matter of common sense steps necessary to 

 the achievement of such a condition would be taken without hesitation. If one 

 of those steps is the inclusion of a minimum quantity of fluid milk daily in the 

 diet, a program should be devised toward that end. 



Just as price has been made an inducement to production, so should it be an 

 inducement to consumption. The consumer may be less sensitive to price than 

 the producer, but it is a certainty that he is not insensitive. 



Remunerative prices to producers and simultaneously attractive prices to 

 consumers are incompatible under our present method of pricing and organization 

 in the fluid milk industry-. Between the producer and the consumer some services 

 must be and many services are performed in assembling and distributing the 

 commodity. The costs incident thereto are legitimate and amount to approx- 

 imately half the retail price. In addition to absorbing this sizable proportion 

 of the price to the consumer, the servicing costs are fairly rigid and under state 

 control have become more sc, with a tendency to increase. Adjustments in con- 

 sumers' prices are reflected consequenth' in producers' prices and an\- significant 

 revisions to consumers would be intolerable to producers. 



If prices are to be sufficiently low to actively induce consumers to use more 

 milk, the costs of servicing must be reduced. Several alternative methods of 

 bringing this about are available to the public. The present pattern of distribution 

 may be maintained and the cost borne by the local municipality as a subsidy in 

 the interest of public health. The pattern of distribution may be revised along 

 any one of numerous lines with the elimination of some services and the per- 

 formance of others by the consumer himself. The most comprehensive reorgani- 

 zation would still recognize processing, packaging, and wholesale deliveries as 

 essential functions; functions which might be expected to cost about two cents 

 per quart. It seems unlikely that anything but outright public support of dis- 

 tribution will encourage the increase in consumption that nutritionists say is 

 desirable. The price received by the producer would then be the price paid by 

 the consumer, and there is the possibility that these two might be compatible. 



