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dairy 
Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 12:00:50 PM PST
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What do consumers want? Cheap, tasty, convenient food. And they DON'T care how you produce it. That's what Elanco, subsidiary of Eli Lilly, maker of rbGH and other animal drugs says in a white paper available from their website. Details below.
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Sat Jan 23, 2010 at 10:35:04 AM PST
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This is a horrible tragedy. From the Washington Post:
NY dairy farmer kills 51 cows, commits suicide
COPAKE, N.Y. -- State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.
State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police...
Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.
The price of milk has been in the toilet all year. It's started to come back up, but not enough. Many think that corporate consolidation and price manipulation is to blame. This is not the first dairy farmer suicide, either. What a tragedy.
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 at 12:40:32 PM PST
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Today I sat on a panel at the International Dairy Food Association's Dairy Forum. The topic was "What do consumers want - really?" The panelists were a longtime Washington Post writer who now works at Powell Tate, Sally Squires, an exec from Sargento cheese, Louie Gentine, and a marketing guru, Tom Nagle. I told the audience that I wore a red shirt so that if they threw rotten tomatoes at me at least the stains would blend in. I was very much there to represent a minority opinion that was probably not a welcome one for many dairy processors. It was an extremely pleasant and lively debate and I really enjoyed each of the panelists and everyone from IDFA that I met here at the Dairy Forum.
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Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 09:22:21 AM PST
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At this moment, I am at the airport, minutes from boarding a plane to Phoenix. I am headed there to speak on a panel about consumer opinion for IDFA (International Dairy Foods Association) conference. I hesitated before accepting the invite because IDFA is an industry trade group and I do not want my independence compromised by affiliations with food industry ties. I asked a few dairy farmers for their opinions on the invite and they said "Go for it!" One added: "We'll never get anywhere if we only preach to the choir. And, you might learn something!" That's a good point. And, while IDFA is covering the costs of the trip, I'm not being paid to speak. (For that matter, if they had offered to pay me, I wouldn't have accepted it.)
So what will I be saying there? The panel is about consumer opinion on dairy products. I plan to say that consumers do NOT want high fructose corn syrup, rbGH, high quantities of sodium, milk protein concentrate, artificial food dyes, parabens, and excess amounts of added sugar in their food. And they DO like when milk comes from cows grazed on pasture from small dairy farms, especially when dairy farmers are compensated fairly for their milk. Of course these issues vary in the percent of customers (and regulators and media) that are aware of them, but they all pose both opportunities and threats to dairy product manufacturers. It's a threat if your product contains nasty ingredients and the public turns against you, and an opportunity to gain good public opinion and market share if your product is a leader in ditching the nasty stuff.
The other issue that will likely come up is dairy in schools - particularly chocolate milk. From my perspective, the dairy industry has a moral high ground when it comes to beverages served in schools. Milk is what the kids SHOULD be drinking. But chocolate milk is not. I don't think the dairy industry and I will agree there as 70% of milk sold in schools IS flavored milk. Dairy companies fear that the kids will prefer 100% juice to milk unless chocolate milk is an option. I'd say that kids should be eating their fruit, not drinking it. And milk should be kept cold in schools so it tastes good. What could be better to wash down your PB&J with than ice cold milk? Chocolate milk aside, I'd LOVE to see the dairy industry beat up on the soda companies to try to get sodas (even diet sodas), energy and sports drinks, and juice drinks out of schools. And for goodness sake, if you're going to sell chocolate milk in schools, pretty please don't put high fructose corn syrup in it!
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 at 22:25:07 PM PST
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Earlier today I wrote about 17 new 2-year appointments to a federal Dairy Industry Advisory Committee. I was happy that my friend, dairy farmer Jim Goodman, was among the appointees. It turns out that another one of the appointees is someone I'm familiar with. Bob Wills of Cedar Grove Cheese is also joining the committee. There are two important things to know about Cedar Grove in my opinion. One is that they provide "domestic fair trade" cheese (available for purchase at the link). Second, they clean their waste water in an INCREDIBLE and very eco-friendly way, using a contraption they call "the Living Machine."
I realize that Jim and Bob might be just token appointees to this committee to appease sustainable ag and family farm advocates, but I am very, very glad that their voices will be heard on this committee. Also, given the crisis that dairy is in right now, if you eat cheese and you want to do something to help, I urge you to check out Cedar Grove's cheese.
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 at 13:38:39 PM PST
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If you follow this site, you know that dairy is in a colossal crisis. The USDA knows it too, and thus far none of the government's "fixes" (like buying up lots of extra milk) have worked. Now Vilsack has announced the appointment of 17 members to a federal Dairy Industry Advisory Committee. From their press release:
Over the next two years, the committee will review the issues of farm milk price volatility, dairy farmer profitability and consolidation, and offer suggestions on ways USDA can best address the needs of a struggling dairy industry.
The best news of all is that LVL blogger Jim Goodman is on the committee!!!! The USDA announced that the committee would include "producers and producer organizations, processors and processor organizations, handlers, consumers, academia, retailers, and state agencies involved in organic and non-organic dairy at the local, regional, national, and international levels." Goodman is an organic dairy farmer in Wisconsin, a member of Family Farm Defenders, and a Kellogg/IATP Food and Society Policy Fellow.
Here is the full list of members:
Producer members appointed to the committee are: Erick Coolidge (Pa.), Timothy den Dulk (Mich.), Debora Erb (N.H.), James Goodman (Wis.), James Krahn, (Ore.), Edward Maltby (Mass.), Manuel Souza (Calif.), Ed Welch (Minn.), and James Williams (Ga.).
Representatives from the processing industry include: Jay Bryant (Va.), Patricia Stroup (Calif.), Sue Taylor (Colo.), and Robert Wills. (Wis.).
Members representing state government, retail, academia, and consumers are: Rodney Nilsestuen (Wis.), Robert Schupper (Pa.), Andrew Novakovic (N.Y.), and Paul Bourbeau (Vt.).
UPDATE: From the comments:
Paul Bourbeau, VT, Paboco Farms, Inc.
Jay Bryant, VA, Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association
Erick Coolidge, PA, Le-Ma-Ra Farm
Timothy Den Dulk, MI, den Dulk Dairy Farm, LLC
Debora Erb, NH, Springvale Farms/Landaff Creamery, LLC
James Goodman, WI, Northwood Farm
James Krahn, OR, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association
Edward Maltby, MA, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance
Rodney Nilsestuen, WI, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
Andrew Novakovic, NY, Cornell University
Robert Schupper, PA, Giant Food Stores
Manuel Souza, CA, Mel-Delin Dairy
Patricia Stroup, CA, Nestle
Sue Taylor, CO, Leprino Foods Company, Inc.
Edward Welch, MN, Associated Milk Producers Inc.
James Williams, GA, Williams Dairy Trucking, Inc.
Robert Wills, WI, Cedar Grove Cheese Inc.
Another commenter spoke highly of Ed Maltby, so that's good news too. Plus I wrote a diary to follow up on this one about Bob Wills and Cedar Grove (he's great, his cheese is great). And I've heard some not so good things about Rod Nilsestuen.
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Mon Jan 04, 2010 at 18:33:09 PM PST
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This is an old story from back in September, but I am posting it because I think it's telling about the state of the dairy industry. It's very, VERY sad. Dennis Wolff, former Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture, made the news September 30, 2009 for evicting the tenant farmers on his property.
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Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 10:30:43 AM PST
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I wrote a friend in Wisconsin, asking for more information on the proposed enormous dairy in Rosendale. Here's what he had to say (below). If you live in Wisconsin and you want to do something about this, please write a letter to the Governor and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same.
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Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 11:06:20 AM PDT
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Congrats to Kathy Ozer of the National Family Farm Coalition for getting a Letter to the Editor printed in the Washington Post. She wrote in about a recent WaPo article that spoke about the $350 million in government aid going to dairy farmers without fairly portraying the crisis dairy farmers are going through these days. The real beneficiaries of the government money, says Ozer, are companies like Kraft and Dean Foods. I agree. If things were fair, dairy processors would have to pay a price reflecting the cost of production for the milk they purchase, and they would not be able to undercut American dairy farmers by importing cheap, low quality milk protein concentrate (MPC). Here's the letter:
Support that dairy farmers deserve
The Oct. 9 editorial "Got Money?," denouncing $350 million in emergency funding for dairy farmers, accused those farmers -- suffering through their worst crisis since the Great Depression -- of milking taxpayers and consumers. Nowhere did it mention the real beneficiaries of the millions that we are spending to sustain the livelihoods of America's remaining 59,000 dairy farmers: corporate agribusinesses.
While farmers are receiving 1970 prices for their milk (not adjusted for inflation), Dean Foods, the largest fluid milk processor, and Kraft Foods have recorded gigantic profit increases. Because dairy processors refuse to pay farmers a fair price for their milk, taxpayers are now subsidizing their profits. Consumers should target their outrage at these entities, not dairy farmers, who have no control over the price they receive or the prices at the grocery store.
We have lost more than 80 percent of our dairy farmers since 1981, when President Ronald Reagan decided to deregulate the price of milk. For anyone who wants access to local fresh milk and fears becoming reliant on imports of powdered milk, supporting our remaining dairy farmers is vital.
Katherine Ozer, Washington
Executive Director
National Family Farm Coalition
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Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 08:22:10 AM PDT
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Barbara Boxer, whose reputation is just to the right of Bernie Sanders, has gone to bat for factory dairy farms. The landscape of the dairy industry is such that the traditional dairy states like Wisconsin, New York, and Vermont are home to smaller farms (on average) than states like California and Idaho, where the dairy industry has been locating enormous factory farms with tens of thousands of cows in recent years. And right now all farms, big and small alike, are in trouble financially. The price of milk is below the cost of production and farms are therefore LOSING money for every gallon they produce.
Congress is on the verge of passing legislation to give money to help struggling dairy farmers, and Senators from traditional dairy states like New York want the money to favor small farms. That would send the money disproportionately to their states, but I don't have a problem with that at all. The dairy culture in places like Wisconsin and Vermont is tangible when you visit those states. Loss of those farms would result in further moving the dairy industry west and with it would go a part of those states' culture. The same could not be said of the enormous farms out west. Furthermore, enormous farms benefit disproportionately from the low-cost labor of undocumented workers, which rigs the market against smaller, family operations in which dairy farmers attempt to earn a living wage without breaking the law. I'll be writing Barbara Boxer an email, asking her to quit shilling for factory farms. If you live in California, please join me in doing the same. (If you live elsewhere, you can call Boxer's Senate office at (202) 224-3553.)
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Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 12:40:48 PM PDT
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I spent a lot of time thinking about how the cows are treated in dairies - but what about the workers? The cows have one thing going for them... the dairy farmers want them to be flooded with the hormone oxytocin to keep their milk production up. In other words, a cow's happiness matters. The workers? Not so much. According to High Country News:
Between 2004 and 2007, nearly seven of every 100 dairy workers were hurt annually on average, compared to 4.5 out of 100 for all private industries. Beyond using tractors and heavy farming equipment, dairy workers interact with large, unpredictable farm animals - work that ranks among the most hazardous of all occupations, according to a 2007 article in Epidemiology. Plus, they breathe air laced with bacteria and manure dust, putting them at risk for long-term respiratory disease.
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Wed Aug 26, 2009 at 09:09:53 AM PDT
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I'm going to punch them right in the kisser. OK, maybe that's not very liberal. I'm going to use non-violent communication techniques to explain to them why Massachusetts (and everywhere else I've visited on this trip) is a really amazing place with wonderful people. We'd be lucky if we had more Massachusetts liberals, and I wouldn't mind having one for President. This was not intended to be a memorial diary for Ted Kennedy, as I planned it before I heard the news, but I cannot neglect to mention that Massachusetts lost a great Senator today, and that I send my condolences to his family.
I'm wrapping up the first leg of my book tour. I just packed. I've spent the past few days in Massachusetts, and before that I was in Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania. It was my first visit to New England as an adult, and my first time here actually meeting with people who live here instead of just doing touristy things like visiting Paul Revere's house. And... wow. Now I know why people put up with all of the snow and mosquitoes to live here. It's wonderful.
So here's a thank-you diary with my pictures and info on some of the amazing people and organizations I met. If you live in one of the states I visited, I hope you use the info here to get involved locally.
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Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 20:55:02 PM PDT
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Earlier this week I posted a diary about two dairy farms - one with 70 cows and one with 700 cows - and how they were surviving the crisis. Here are the pics from those farms, including the super-cute day old calf photos.
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Sat Aug 22, 2009 at 07:29:36 AM PDT
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Yesterday I visited two conventional dairy farms who are surviving the dairy crisis in very different ways. I'd like to share their stories with you.
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Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 20:53:31 PM PDT
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Yesterday, I visited an organic dairy farm in northern Vermont (practically to Canada!). The farmer found me through this blog a few months ago and we've corresponded since then. Since I was going to be speaking at a natural foods store a few miles south of him, we arranged for me to visit his farm. And I brought my camera...
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