07-3545 White Eagle Cooperative Association v. Conner

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Agriculture
Milk diversion; administrative procedure

The USDA had authority to lower diversion limit standards for "producer" milk by ten percentage points.

"[T]he USDA rejected White Eagle's arguments because they missed the mark. Although the diversion limits may have decreased the volume of milk available for manufacturing uses, with a resultant decrease in returns for some producers, preserving returns for every producer was not the USDA's primary goal. Instead, the problem that the USDA was attempting to address through diversion limits was the opportunistic entry into the market by producers (to take advantage of the higher blend price) who did not regularly serve the Class I needs of the market, with the resultant additional costs. Thus, far from being a reason not to implement the diversion limits, the fact that some producers would be excluded from the pool (because they did not serve regularly the fluid needs of that market), and may suffer a decrease in returns (because they could no longer benefit from the higher blend price), was consistent with the policy approach the USDA had adopted in its prior milk marketing orders and continued in the order at issue."

Affirmed.

07-3545 White Eagle Cooperative Association v. Conner

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Sharp, J., Ripple, J.

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