Comments on: Dairy Crisis 2009: Stand Up For Rural America While You Still Can

By: Dave Murphy

Dave Murphy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:27:59 +0000

Andrew,

We are in agreement regarding subsidies, we support Obama’s Rural Agenda and the need for strong payment caps. We’re also in agreement that a permanent floor price that does not have supply management and expansion clauses worked into legislation would be problematic for both dairy farmers and consumers and would only lead to more mega-dairies.

We’re calling for an emergency floor price for 6 months, an opening of emergency lines of credit and something that helps simplify milk pricing so it cannot be manipulated and reflects a real market. The fact is leaders in Washington need to act fast or there will only be more consolidation in the dairy industry.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:04:46 +0000

Dave,

Thanks for your response. My point is simply that increasing the price supports for dairy farmers would not benefit those farmers in the long run, but, as with corn, would benefit the biggest processors (Kraft, Coca Cola, etc.). Enforcing pertinent anti-trust laws, however, sounds like a great idea.

By: Dave Murphy

Dave Murphy — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:56:03 +0000

Andrew,

Thanks, we share your concerns regarding subsidies. The current floor price for dairy has been set artificially low and does not cover cost average feed costs, let alone cost of production. Also the MILC payments have been inadequate.

The dairy crisis represents a real opportunity for Congress and this administration to end anticompetitive markets and price manipulation that have been allowed to grow harmful to family farmers due to increasing concentration. Strengthening anti-monopoly laws and Justice Department enforcement of antitrust legislation would be a good start.

But the truth is, family farm agriculture is as important to America as Wall Street and Detroit, our elected officials need to act.

By: Cat

Cat — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:40:32 +0000

Per Andrew’s comment, subsidies don’t seem like a sustainable answer. At the same time, I don’t want to see relatively small dairy farmers going out of business in favor of massive, environmentally destructive dairy operations and imported dairy. Is there a solution that keeps the farms viable without huge subsidies?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:05:01 +0000

Counter-cyclical payments, like those for corn (and for dairy), ensure that farmers never receive below a certain price, by paying them the difference between what the market offers and a government-set “price floor.” This keeps many farmers producing and corn when they would otherwise go out of business. As a result, corn is everywhere: in your soda, in your beef, and in your car. American corn farmers, however, are barely scraping by, while conglomerates like Cargill and Coca-Cola are making billions of dollars off of cheap corn (cheap for them because the government picks up half the tab). Here’s Michael Pollan on the issue:

“But though those subsidy checks go to the farmer (and represents nearly half of net farm income today), what the Treasury is really subsidizing are the buyers of all that cheap corn.” (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pp 54-5).

Is that really what we want for American dairy farmers too? To enrich Kraft and Dean Foods on their backs, and at the taxpayers’ expense?

By: GastroNomalies » Blog Archive » Luscious Links

GastroNomalies » Blog Archive » Luscious Links — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:32:50 +0000

[...] First they came for chicken farmers, then the hogs, and now dairy. [...]

By: Dixie Burkhart

Dixie Burkhart — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:05:57 +0000

This looks like another in a long series of issues that has the potential to make the United States unrecognizable from only a few years ago.

I wish the farmers and all of us well.

Dixie Burkhart
Facts Don’t Matter
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/FactsDontMatter.htm

By: Amerigo

Amerigo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:20:49 +0000

This is why the organic/conventional debate should be secondary. Save rural society and it’s farms first, then we can discuss organic, conventional, sustainble, permaculture, GMO, biodynamic, no-till…. Free trade destroying agriculture is what led to the Constiution being written. In the 1780s, the weak American government of the Articles of Confederation could not effectively regualte trade. Cheap imports from Britain and France crushed farm prices……until a group of angry farmers stormed the courthouse in Springfield, Mass…..the fallout of which swung the political pendulum in favor of the strong central government……and a year later the Constitution was written, and the rest is history. So,…….never underestimate a mob of angry farmers!

By: 2009: The Year Small Dairy Farmers Went Bust | Vegan.com

2009: The Year Small Dairy Farmers Went Bust | Vegan.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:26:59 +0000

[...] be the sort of PR nitwits who create laughably bad propaganda like the SafeFoodInc.org website. Link. Spread the [...]

By: New Dream Blog » Blog Archive » Sign the Farm Aid Petition to Help Dairy Farmers

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:04:12 +0000

[...] at home, causing what the Huffington Post calls the next Great Depression for dairy farmers. Civil Eats details the history of big business taking over farming sectors, from hogs to chickens: in [...]