Dairy farmers in the Northeast are training their sights on the massive Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) co-op and processing giant Dean Foods in an effort to prove that price fixing and illegal monopolization of the dairy industry has kept milk prices artificially low for struggling producers.

These farmers’ action represents the latest in a series of lawsuits around the country alleging that a lack of competition in the dairy processing industry has resulted in record profits for milk processors at the cost of lower prices for farmers.

Lawyers from Burlington firm Gravel and Shea alongside the Washington, D.C.-based Cohen Milstein firm were slated to make the case for the antitrust class-action suit against four milk processors — DFA, Dean Foods, Dairy Marketing Services (DMS) and HP Hood — in a hearing in U.S. District Court in Burlington on May 6. The defendants are pushing a motion to dismiss the case altogether.

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