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Family Farmers Call On Congress, USDA To Take Immediate Action On The Dairy Crisis
12.03.2009 - Farm Aid Press Release: Farmers urge lawmakers to establish fair and competitive pricing system
WASHINGTON — More than 100 dairy farmers from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee traveled to Washington, D.C., yesterday to meet
with congressional representatives and other officials to present solutions that
would end the worst dairy crisis to hit America’s family dairy farmers since the
Great Depression.
Dairy farmers met with members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees,
the Senate Judiciary Committee, the House Education and Labor Committee and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to urge immediate action to restore
fairness in the dairy pricing system, enforce anti-trust laws and ensure that
dairy farmers receive a fair price for their product and consumers have access
to quality milk. Dairy farmers also called on the USDA to quickly distribute
emergency assistance aid that was authorized by Congress and President Obama
under the 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Bill in October.
Debbie Windecker, a dairy farmer from Frankfort, N.Y., and a member of United
States Dairy Farmers and Friends, traveled overnight to participate in
yesterday’s meetings. “We want to know why there is such a large disparity
between the price consumers pay for milk and the price paid to farmers — except
for the processors in the middle, we are all losing,” said Windecker. “Dairy
farmers have a message for the politicians who represent people living in rural
areas and in urban areas. No matter where we come from we have a lot in common:
We all eat and this crisis affects all of us.”
Nationwide, the average cost of production is about $18.00 per hundredweight,
far below the average $10.78 per hundredweight dairy farmers received in the
first 10 months of 2009. For more than a year, America’s dairy farmers have
effectively paid to go to work, at times losing as much as $200 per cow per
month. As a result, many farmers are facing record debts and many have either
sold their herds or have been forced to leave the dairy business entirely.
“Our nation’s dairy farmers have headed to Washington, D.C., not to beg for
handouts, but to demand justice and overhaul a broken milk pricing system,” said
Joel Greeno, a dairy farmer from Kendall, Wisc. “Yet too few will make the trip;
a year of absolutely deplorable milk prices has left many with no financial
resources to travel. Or like me, they’re not able to find anyone to milk the
cows and do the chores while they’re gone. I want Congress to know that these
farmers who were able to make the trip represent us all.”
Farmers unable to travel to D.C. have committed to meet with their
representatives in their home districts later this month when Congress adjourns
for 2009.
Since the start of 2009, Farm Aid, along with the National Family Farm Coalition
and other farmer organizations, has called attention to the dairy crisis,
advocating for dairy pricing reform and anti-trust investigation. Farm Aid has
met with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, delivering petitions signed by
more than 13,000 consumers and farmers calling for the USDA to establish a floor
price for milk that covers farmers’ cost of production. Farm Aid also has made
emergency assistance funds available to dairy farmers and has offered support to
dairy farmers organizing local rallies to inform consumers and legislators about
the impact that losing the country’s remaining 60,000 dairy farmers will have on
the U.S.
“The question being asked by these farmers, on behalf of all of us, is whether
we are going to have a food system that allows a level playing field for family
farmers and consumers or a system of increased consolidation that puts more
power into the hands of powerful corporations,” said Carolyn Mugar, executive
director of Farm Aid. “Dairy farmers don’t want a bailout — they simply seek a
fair and competitive pricing system that allows them to stay on the land and
support their families, while producing safe, fresh milk and dairy products for
all of us.”
Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of
agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil
Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds
to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose
family-farmed food. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $36 million to
support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food
Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture
and promote food from family farms.
Click HERE to read more on the dairy crisis on the Farm Aid website.
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