204
Opinion of the Court
more, the Massachusetts order regulates a portion of the same interstate market in milk that is more broadly regulated by a federal milk marketing order which covers most of New England. 7 CFR § 1001.2 (1993). The Massachusetts producers who deliver milk to dealers in that regulated market are participants in the same interstate milk market as the out-of-state producers who sell in the same market and are guaranteed the same minimum blend price by the federal order. The fact that the Massachusetts order imposes assessments only on Massachusetts sales and distributes them only to Massachusetts producers does not exclude either the assessments or the payments from the interstate market. To the extent that those assessments affect the relative volume of Class I milk products sold in the marketing area as compared to other classes of milk products, they necessarily affect the blend price payable even to out-of-state producers who sell only in non-Massachusetts markets.19 The obvious impact of the order on out-of-state production demonstrates that it is simply wrong to assume that the pricing order burdens only Massachusetts consumers and dealers.
D
Finally, respondent argues that any incidental burden on interstate commerce "is outweighed by the 'local benefits' of preserving the Massachusetts dairy industry." 20 Brief for
19 On the way changing the demand for Class I milk products changes the blend price for producers in the entire area covered by the marketing order, see n. 1, supra.
20 Among the "local benefits" that respondent identifies is "protecting unique open space and related benefits." Brief for Respondent 40. As the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recognized by relegating the "open space" point to a single footnote, West Lynn Creamery, Inc. v. Commissioner of Dept. of Food and Agriculture, 415 Mass. 8, 10, n. 6, 611 N. E. 2d 239, 240, n. 6 (1993), the argument that environmental benefits were central and the enhancement of the market share of Massachusetts dairy farmers merely "incidental" turns the pricing order on its head. In addition, even if environmental preservation were the central purpose of
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