Dairy farmers in New York state and across the country are facing an economic crisis that looms ever larger as time goes on.
A decrease of demand, combined with the slow but steady rise of imported dairy products from countries like Australia and New Zealand added to the abundance of milk and milk products already produced in country and the rising cost of production have caused the prices paid to dairy farmers to plummet to well below $12 per hundredweight in recent months.
During May, the cost of production for farmers per hundredweight was more than $25, which is more than double the price they received for their product. Many dairy farmers across the state are barely hanging on to their livelihoods, plummeting deeper and deeper into debt, and are now threatened with losing their farms, their financial security and their way of life.
Unwilling to go quietly, farmers from around the state and across the country are beginning grassroots movements in an effort to stave off the impending collapse of the dairy production system. Groups like the United States Dairy Farmers, and Pro-Ag, which operates out of Pennsylvania, have been involved in a campaign to make the full scope of the crisis clear by formally appealing to the Senate, as well as the Department of Agriculture, for intervention.
Senator Charles Schumer, in a personal letter drafted to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack released on Thursday, sought some immediate relief for dairy farmers by urging Vilsack to raise the price paid to dairy farmers by the federal government for products like dry milk and cheese through the Dairy Price Support Program by 5 percent. Schumer is pushing for prices to be raised to at least $1.19 per pound for block cheese, $1.16 per pound for barrel cheese and $.84 for non-fat dry milk. According to the statement issued by Schumer, the Dairy Product Support Program, the USDA serces as a buyer of last resort when there is an over abundance of product on the market, helping to clear commodity dairy markets during times of exceptionally low farm-level prices. The current prices that they pay out were established by language added to the 2008 Farm Bill, which was passed by Congress more than a year ago, but the USDA has the authority to raise those prices if the situation reaches a critical point.
Schumer voiced his support of a proposal made by the National Milk Producers Federation: “We all know that dairy farmers are facing a crisis in New York State and across the country. We need to address this problem both in the long term by increasing and improving the MILC program, but we also need to take actions that can help immediately. Raising the price that the Department of Agriculture pays for commodities is a great way to help farmers, and it is something that can have an immediate effect.”
Arden Tewksbury, Pennsylvania dairy farmer and a manager for the Pro-Ag Organization, has been a longtime spokesman and activist for the rights of dairy farmers. Pro-Ag has been an important voice in urging Senatorial agreement to S-889, the bill drafted by Pennsylvania Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey.
“Anybody can see that the system as it stands does not work,” said Tewksbury, “And it has reached the point where only Congress can do something about it.”
According to Tewksbury, Schumer, along with several other senators canvassed early in April, lent vocal support to s-889, “But then, when it came time to vote on it, the support just wasn’t there.” Contacted about Schumer’s proposal to Vilseck, Tewksbury said, “To think that a 5 percent increase would help anything at all is just asinine thinking. It is just a drop in the bucket.”
Calling the increase a band-aid solution to a terminal wound, Tewksbury makes his stance quite clear. “It seems that the senators are not ready to tackle the real problems being faced by dairy farmers,” he said. “The MILC Program worked well enough when the market was better, but in this climate, it is simply ineffective. Congress needs to step in and take action...do something about bringing those prices back up. Otherwise, these band-aid solutions are not going to accomplish anything.”
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Dairy farmers in New York state and across the country are facing an economic crisis that looms ever larger as time goes on.
A decrease of demand, combined with the slow but steady rise of imported dairy products from countries like Australia and New Zealand added to the abundance of milk and milk products already produced in country and the rising cost of production have caused the prices paid to dairy farmers to plummet to well below $12 per hundredweight in recent months.
During May, the cost of production for farmers per hundredweight was more than $25, which is more than double the price they received for their product. Many dairy farmers across the state are barely hanging on to their livelihoods, plummeting deeper and deeper into debt, and are now threatened with losing their farms, their financial security and their way of life.
Unwilling to go quietly, farmers from around the state and across the country are beginning grassroots movements in an effort to stave off the impending collapse of the dairy production system. Groups like the United States Dairy Farmers, and Pro-Ag, which operates out of Pennsylvania, have been involved in a campaign to make the full scope of the crisis clear by formally appealing to the Senate, as well as the Department of Agriculture, for intervention.
Senator Charles Schumer, in a personal letter drafted to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack released on Thursday, sought some immediate relief for dairy farmers by urging Vilsack to raise the price paid to dairy farmers by the federal government for products like dry milk and cheese through the Dairy Price Support Program by 5 percent. Schumer is pushing for prices to be raised to at least $1.19 per pound for block cheese, $1.16 per pound for barrel cheese and $.84 for non-fat dry milk. According to the statement issued by Schumer, the Dairy Product Support Program, the USDA serces as a buyer of last resort when there is an over abundance of product on the market, helping to clear commodity dairy markets during times of exceptionally low farm-level prices. The current prices that they pay out were established by language added to the 2008 Farm Bill, which was passed by Congress more than a year ago, but the USDA has the authority to raise those prices if the situation reaches a critical point.
Schumer voiced his support of a proposal made by the National Milk Producers Federation: “We all know that dairy farmers are facing a crisis in New York State and across the country. We need to address this problem both in the long term by increasing and improving the MILC program, but we also need to take actions that can help immediately. Raising the price that the Department of Agriculture pays for commodities is a great way to help farmers, and it is something that can have an immediate effect.”
Arden Tewksbury, Pennsylvania dairy farmer and a manager for the Pro-Ag Organization, has been a longtime spokesman and activist for the rights of dairy farmers. Pro-Ag has been an important voice in urging Senatorial agreement to S-889, the bill drafted by Pennsylvania Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey.
“Anybody can see that the system as it stands does not work,” said Tewksbury, “And it has reached the point where only Congress can do something about it.”
According to Tewksbury, Schumer, along with several other senators canvassed early in April, lent vocal support to s-889, “But then, when it came time to vote on it, the support just wasn’t there.” Contacted about Schumer’s proposal to Vilseck, Tewksbury said, “To think that a 5 percent increase would help anything at all is just asinine thinking. It is just a drop in the bucket.”
Calling the increase a band-aid solution to a terminal wound, Tewksbury makes his stance quite clear. “It seems that the senators are not ready to tackle the real problems being faced by dairy farmers,” he said. “The MILC Program worked well enough when the market was better, but in this climate, it is simply ineffective. Congress needs to step in and take action...do something about bringing those prices back up. Otherwise, these band-aid solutions are not going to accomplish anything.”
