Cite as: 539 U. S. 59 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
Federal orders typically guarantee all producers the same minimum price and create only two or three classes of end uses to determine the processors' contributions to, or withdrawals from, the equalization pools, whereas under the California scheme some of the farmers' production commands a "quota price" and some receives a lower "overbase price," and the processors' end uses of the milk are divided into five different classes.
The complexities of the California scheme are not relevant to these cases; what is relevant is the fact California processors of fluid milk pay a premium price (part of which goes into a pool) that is higher than either of the prices paid to the producers.2 During the early 1990's, market conditions made it profitable for some California processors to buy raw milk from out-of-state producers at prices that were higher than either the quota prices or the overbase prices guaranteed to California farmers yet lower than the premium prices they had to pay when making in-state purchases. The regulatory scheme was at least partially responsible for the advantage enjoyed by out-of-state producers because it did not require the processors to make any contribution to the equalization pool on such purchases. In other words, whereas an in-state purchase of raw milk resold as fluid milk required the processor both to pay a guaranteed minimum to the farmer and also to make a contribution to the pool, an outof-state purchase at a higher price would often be cheaper because it required no pool contribution.
In 1997, the California Department of Food and Agriculture amended its plan to require that contributions to the
2 Because processors of fluid milk typically manufacture some other products as well, their respective pool contributions reflect the relative amounts of those end uses. Each processor's mix of end uses produces an individual monthly "blend price" that is multiplied by its total purchases. Under federal orders the term "blend price" has a different meaning; it usually refers to the price that the producer receives. See West Lynn Creamery, Inc. v. Healy, 512 U. S. 186, 189, n. 1 (1994).
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