By Sam Hemingway

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Monday he has asked the Department of Justice’s antitrust division to investigate whether milk processors, such as Dean Foods Inc., are enriching themselves at the expense of dairy farmers.

Sanders said he met last week with Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, and also spoke with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about increasing price supports paid to dairy farmers.

Farmers have seen the price for their milk drop from $19.50 per hundred pounds a year ago to less than $11 in June. Meanwhile, Dean Foods profits climbed from $30 million in the first quarter of 2008 to $76.2 million for the first quarter of 2009, according to figures provided by Sanders’ office.

“We’re supposed to be living in a country that embraces competition in the marketplace and free enterprise but that’s clearly not what’s happening when one company controls 70 percent of the market,” Sanders said later Monday.

The worry, he said, that if something is not done soon, a number of Vermont dairy farms will go out of business.

“Dairy farmers are suffering terribly and we cannot continue to lose more and more dairy farms in Vermont,” Sanders said.

Vilsack, meeting with regional agriculture officials last week in New Hampshire, has acknowledged the current milk pricing system is flawed and said he wants to reform the milk pricing system so it is fairer to farmers and brings more stability in the dairy industry.

Sanders used most of his Monday news conference in Burlington to discuss health-care reform. He said he is pushing to have the Senate approve a measure that includes a public option for people who don’t have health insurance or can’t afford the insurance they do have.

“We are spending twice as much on health per person in the United States as any other nation on Earth,” Sanders said.

Appearing with Sanders at the news conference were five Vermonters with stories about difficulties they or loved ones have had with the current health-care system.

Leora Dowling of Vergennes said she had to pay more than $24,000 in out-of-pocket expenses after she was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer in 2006. Mary Doud of Northfield told how her family’s monthly medical costs were more than her house payment.

Dan Morris, owner of Roundtree Construction in New Haven, estimated that it costs $7.50 an hour for his workers to have adequate health care coverage and said it was illogical to tie health care to employers and the vagaries of economic cycles.

The five who spoke are among 4,000 who, at Sanders’ invitation, have provided him stories about their problems with the country’s health care system.