The Dairy Antitrust Hearing in Madison

Dairy Antitrust Hearings (4.00 / 3)

All the handwringing that the federal government should somehow rescue the dairy industry is sad. The federal government needs to do what Farm Aid suggests, which is to break up the monopolistic power of the processors, pure and simple, and then let dairy farmers operate as businesses rather than as slaves. But somehow, the Justice Department never seems to get around to this solution.  
Here's more on that view:
http://www.grist.org/article/c...

David Gumpert
Author: The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Struggle Over Food Rights

---

by: davidgumpert @ Mon Jun 28, 2010 at 13:23:13 PM UTC

Farm Aid ….. "Unconscionable?" (4.00 / 3)

Farm Aid's declaration that allowing the manipulation of the dairy industry, at the expense of hard-working family-scale farmers, is "unconscionable" rings a tad bit hollow.

If Farm Aid wants to make a tangible statement they will immediately announce the discontinuation of accepting money from Dean Foods, the $12 billion dairy goliath that is alleged to be a prime perpetrator in the caper to cheat dairy farmers out of their rightful share of the consumer food dollar.

No, you won't see Dean Foods listed as a Farm Aid contributor, as you'll never see Dean Foods on a package of Horizon organic milk or Silk soy drink.  Rather, you'll see something warmer and fuzzier, the name WhiteWave (a division of Dean Foods).

For years The Cornucopia Institute has attempted to meet with the management at Farm Aid to discuss their relationship with Dean Foods.  But our efforts have been rejected.  When we last contacted their Board of Directors we received a canned letter back touting the virtues of Dean Foods and WhiteWave (available upon request).

Farm Aid, in acting as a public relations agent for Dean Foods by showcasing the Horizon and Silk brands as the marquee sponsors of their concerts, forgot about the "unconscionable" activities that these brands are associated with.

Such activities included dominating the "organic" milk market with giant factory farms, with as many as 10,000 cows (some of these dairies are now decertified); stifling the growth of organics in the United States by purchasing "organic" soybeans from China; and then ultimately switching virtually the entire product line of Silk (once a 100% organic company prior to its purchase by Dean Foods) over to conventional soybeans.

Let Farm Aid know that laundering Dean Foods money, even if it's for good purposes, is unconscionable, and unacceptable.  There is blood in that money!  The blood of thousands of hard-working dairy families that have lost their farms and their livelihoods due to Dean Foods alleged marketplace manipulation.

Please let Farm Aid know how you feel:  farmhelp@farmaid.org

They should immediately announce, as part of their response to the antitrust hearings on dairy last week in Madison, Wisconsin, that they are immediately discontinuing their relationship with Dean Foods.

The Cornucopia Institute, and many others, appreciate the work and focus of Farm Aid over the years in helping distressed farmers.  But you can't claim to be fighting factory farming, and supporting the family farm movement, by continuing to accept the ill-gotten gains of Dean Foods.

Many of us in the "good food movement" will step up to fill the financial void left by Dean Foods.  Other companies, like Eden Foods of Michigan, who had been purchasing organic soybeans from domestic farmers for well over 20 years, would be a great fundraising prospect to solicit .... an organization that farmers and consumers would all be proud to stand with.

Will Fantle
Codirector
The Cornucopia Institute

---

by: wfantle @ Mon Jun 28, 2010 at 14:43:25 PM UTC

Good point (4.00 / 2)

Does sound a bit like an anti-global warming group accepting cash from Exxon Mobil, doesn't it?

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

---

by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Jun 28, 2010 at 19:06:02 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

From Farm Aid (0.00 / 0)

Will Fantle is mistaken about several things related to Farm Aid and Silk Soymilk and Horizon Organic.

One way we can all support family farmers is to buy the food that they produce. Farm Aid partners with brands because brands are a link for consumers to identify and purchase sustainable food from family farmers. Farm Aid has sponsors and donors including brands like Silk Soymilk and Horizon Organic, along with several other food brands, because they feature sustainable food from family farmers.

Silk sources from North American family farmers growing non-GMO soy, some of it organic soy. Horizon Organic sources organic milk from more than 480 family farmers, with another 50 or so in transition. Horizon Organic has invested heavily in family farmers making the transition to organic production. We stand by those farmers.

That Silk and Horizon Organic are brands under Dean Foods has no bearing on Farm Aid's activism for a fair conventional dairy market. Farm Aid is proud of our association with Silk and Horizon Organic but we will continue to challenge Dean Foods to do better for America's family farmers and consumers in the conventional milk business.  

Farm Aid welcomes comments and dialogue on all issues in our work together to support family farmers.

---

by: Farm Aid @ Tue Jun 29, 2010 at 21:00:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Re: Farm Aid's response (4.00 / 1)

Dear anonymous Farm Aid poster,

We welcome a public dialogue regarding Farm Aid's continuing financial relationship with Dean Foods.  Dean Foods, in the eyes of many, is regarded as one of the worst - if not the worst - corporate bad actor in the dairy industry. Their activities are a focal point in the long overdue anti-trust investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that has been initiated by the Obama administration.  

We fully stand behind the comments we've made on this blog site.  Although you suggest that I was mistaken about something in my posting you fail to delineate any factual errors on our part ... instead, just presenting a glowing report on Farm Aid's largest corporate benefactor.

It remains a fact that they took business away from North American organic farmers and switched it to China after Silk was purchased by Dean Foods.  Now Farm Aid and Dean Foods are boasting that they are buying all their soybeans from North America, although, as we previously stated, they've switched their product line to almost entirely conventional soybeans.  Dean Foods took a 100% organic company and converted it to mostly conventional.  

And at this point in time, there's even no independent verification of what Dean's WhiteWave division says about buying all of their organic soybeans from North America (nobody has been importing conventional soybeans from China so boasting about buying American conventional soybeans now is nothing more than puffery).  

And yes, Dean Foods/WhiteWave purchases organic milk from hundreds of family farms in North America, and we have no beef whatsoever with most of these operations.  

However, some of their suppliers, that they refer to as "family farms," milk thousands of cows in the desert. These are truly  factory farms by anyone's definition.

And, Dean Foods owns their own corporate factory farms, leases other industrial-scale dairies, and has bankrolled the start-up of others (vertical integration in organics).  

When our investigators visited their (8000-head at the time) factory dairy in Idaho's arid land, we found blatant violations of the organic law with most of their cattle confined 24/7 in giant buildings and pens .... that's not organic!  Although some of their  farmer-suppliers were sanctioned by the USDA, a sweetheart relationship with the Bush administration allowed the improprieties to continue.  Inexcusable (to anyone, evidently, other than Farm Aid and Dean Foods' shareholders).

And if that's not enough insult to injury, and enough reason for Farm Aid to disavow any relationship with Dean Foods, they have now switched some of the product offerings under the Horizon label to "natural" rather than organic (made with conventional ingredients) and targeted for, of all markets, toddlers!

They've taken one of the largest brands in the organic market and cheapened it with conventional ingredients. Anyone who is truly dedicated to the organic movement, do you hear us Farm Aid management? should be APPALLED by the greed and arrogance of this $12 billion company.

Of course, Upton Sinclair, the preeminent critiquer of corporate agribusiness at the time, said it best, "It's very hard to convince a man of something when his paycheck depends on him not understanding it."

As the Post from Farm Aid says, they welcome your input so we would encourage you to visit their website and let them know how you feel about this ethical dilemma of theirs.  

And be prepared to be presented with more corporate propaganda from Dean Foods about how wonderful their WhiteWave division truly is.  That was the response when we first brought these concerns forward, privately, to them.  

Farm Aid has done so much good work over the years helping distressed farmers.  But their inability to see the problems with their relationship with Dean Foods is puzzling, although undoubtedly delightful for their biggest corporate donor.  

Will Fantle
CoDirector
The Cornucopia Institute
www.cornucopia.org

PS:  As they say, one picture is worth 1000 words.  If you visit the photo gallery on our website you can view the decertified 10,000-cow dairy that was a proud supplier to Horizon before Cornucopia helped shut that down.  This Horizon "family farm" lost their organic certification because of violations of organic livestock management regulations.

---

by: wfantle @ Thu Jul 01, 2010 at 15:40:06 PM UTC