At the request of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report detailing the impacts of consolidation in dairy cooperatives on the farmers they represent. The report highlights power imbalances and reduced farmer earnings as a result of consolidation, as well as a wider range of farm sizes and geographic diversity in the membership. A slew of mergers, most notably the quadruple merger that formed Dairy Farmers of America