Got Milk? Dairy lobbyists pushing to shut down small producer-handlers

[theHandpuppet]

No, this won't make the network news but it's important, folks. This article appeared in a local, small town newspaper. The good ol' USDA at it again....

http://athensnews.com/news/local/2009/mar/26/local-dairy-farmer-plans-fight-proposed-federal-re/

The Athens News (Athens, Ohio)
Local dairy farmer plans to fight proposed federal regulations till the cows come home
By David DeWitt

March 26, 2009

Southeast Ohio’s self-described “Dairy Evangelist” is on a crusade, and the stakes are high. The battle is one of David versus Goliath, and Warren Taylor, owner of the Snowville Creamery in Meigs County, says he’s not just in the fight to protect his business, but to defend the health of the citizens of this nation.

Taylor’s Snowville Creamery is a producer-handler dairy operation where the milk is minimally pasteurized, not homogenized and likely the freshest available at the local grocery. Cows are pastured, meaning they’re always outside, grass-fed, growth-hormone-free and local.

The plant is located on the dairy farm of Bill Dix and Stacy Hall on Ohio Rt. 143 near Harrisonville. Some 220 cows graze the fields under the sun, getting exercise and producing high-quality milk that will end up on the shelves the very next day. This is in contrast to major dairy manufacturers, where cows are packed into buildings, fed grain, injected with growth hormones and required to produce nearly double the milk without exercise. This milk is then heated to a level Taylor says destroys the nutritional value so as to increase shelf life for mass distribution.

But now, the two main Washington dairy lobbies, the National Milk Producers Federation and the International Dairy Foods Association, are asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to eliminate the producer-handler classification, which exempts businesses like the Snowville Creamery from pricing and pooling provisions. The result of such an action would be that businesses like Snowville would have to pay large amounts of money into the pooling and could not afford to continue, as the prices they work with are already significantly higher than that of the mass distributors, who sometimes sell milk even below production cost....

[pleah]

1. K&R

[rucky]

2. The most cutthroat industry I've been involved with:

Media? nope
Financial Services? nope

it was AG! by a mile. The big producers shamelessly gang up on the little guys, and the USDA helps with uneven enforcement and creative interpretation of regulations.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Yep, more powerful and more DANGEROUS than folks realize

These are the folks controlling our food supply. Well, we Dems are at the helm, now. Write to Vilsack and let him know we ARE paying attention!

Another excerpt from the article:

Taylor also accused the dairy lobbies of pushing for this move as the switch in administrations came, so as to get their way before Vilsack had his own full team assembled to review the issue.

“Our request is that Vilsack assemble his new staff, his own staff, and they look at this as a policy issue,” Taylor said. “This is being rushed through precisely because there is a change of administration, precisely because there is a new Secretary of Agriculture coming in, precisely because there is winds of change blowing through Washington, D.C.”

Taylor said this was the lobbies’ attempt to get in before the USDA has staff sympathetic to local agriculture.

“I’m trying to get congressmen to sign letters, but ultimately the only person who can intercede is Vilsack,” Taylor said.

[Tashca]

17. This line...

"Taylor said this was the lobbies’ attempt to get in before the USDA has staff sympathetic to local agriculture."

Mr. Taylor makes a good point here.....the Dairy lobbies were trying to ram this through before the dust settles.

I see Tom announced his Top staff Friday. I do believe they will be sympathetic to the small farmer. I guess now we will see......I hope we have follow up on this.

[hootinholler]

4. I would like to keep the local creamery around thank you very much.

I have one near me. Real milk, real fresh, real good, and the ice cream!

-Hoot

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. K&R

x(

[MadHound]

6. And with Vilsack as Ag Secretary, this will probably come to pass,

Between this and the NAIS legislation working its way through Congress, small farmers are still under fire just as much as they were under the Bush and earlier administrations.

[theHandpuppet]

7. Yes, that's what I'm afraid of, too

Let's see if Vilsack is part of the "change" or just "more of the same"!

[amborin]

10. Vilsack

has a demonstrated track record of not being on the side of small farmers

[theHandpuppet]

11. Frankly, I thought Vilsack was an unfortunate choice

But it seems most of America either doesn't understand the Ag business or doesn't care.

[Ellipsis]

8. Conversely , huge Mega farms being put in Wisconsin... 4000 head

http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=290&yr=2009

Snip:


...several neighbors, including other dairy operations and town leaders, claim that their geological research shows that the area could not keep up with the 200,000 gallons of groundwater that North Breeze would need each day. They are petitioning the DNR to halt the project.

Gerrits says his company will start building once all of his state permits are finalized.

North Breeze is the second farm in the state to propose milking that many animals in one location. The Rosendale Farm in Fond du Lac County was just granted a Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit by the state in February for a 4,000-cow operation. They hope to eventually increase that number to 8,000 cows within a few years.

snip:

8000 Cows! On one farm.

Absolutely the wrong direction

[flvegan]

9. Shameful.

Personally, I don't touch dairy. However, for those that do, it's shameful for the government to purposely set to shut down small local family interests like that.

[acmavm]

12. This is just part of what will be the biggest dilemma facing people in

the next few years. How to wrest our water and food supplies from the dirty clutches of corporate 'farmers'.

I swear, the stench from a corporate pig farm can be make you sick even if you're 5 miles away. And what they're doing to our water, well that is just downright criminal.

[The Straight Story]

13. kicking

good find.

[theHandpuppet]

16. Thanks

I do worry that with the continuing collapse of newspapers around the country, it's local stories such as this one that will be a thing of the past.

[Doremus]

14. SE Ohio. Wonder how Taylor, Dix & Hall voted in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

I think we already know. But if they didn't characteristically vote for their "good old boy," were they out pounding the pavement and talking to their peers, who did vote for him, in droves?

Elections have consequences, folks.

[theHandpuppet]

15. Huh?

In case anyone hasn't informed you, the Dems are in the driver's seat now, so what "consequences" are you talking about? The consequences of now having Democrats in charge and the Dairy lobbyists pounding on Vilsack's door? Of course, neither do you know who Warren Taylor voted for or anything about Snowville Creamery. And you obviously aren't aware that the county in which this small SE Ohio paper was printed voted for Obama by 66%.

But by all means keep those blinders on. Let those lobbyists for corporate agriculture drive decent farms like Snowville out of business. That will show them. And Vilsack can sign his name to the legislation. Feel better now?

[Doremus]

19. It isn't Vilsack who's pushing this through. It's the old guard who was

voted into office in previous years. Don't try to blame this on Democrats!

Ohioans suffered for decades because the red counties down south, aided by their corrupt party leaders, were able to ramrod their candidates and causes down the throats of large urban cities. I know, I live here and have lived through every despicable election and the attendant aftermath.

As I said previously, I do not know how these folks voted in the past, but there is one thing I do know: it wasn't the voters in Ohio's blue counties who brought us the past 8 years of fascism.

[theHandpuppet]

23. Wow -- you're the one with the odd logic

YOU refererred to the consequences of how these folks may have voted in the last election, not me. I'm depending on Dems to fix this shoddy mess, not use their positions of power to exact revenge on small farmers by awarding the mega-corporations in the Ag business. This is the time for the Democratic Party to show folks just why a vote for Dems is a great vote for rural commuinities and farmers, not rub their faces in the dirt and say how you don't give a damn about them. Yeah, that's the ticket all right.

I would also say you need to hone your knowledge of voting patterns, as the heavyweight vote for Republicans traditionally comes from SW and western Ohio, not the Appalachian counties. I have written on the subject here countless times and you are free to check out my journal for the facts.

[Doremus]

26. I think you'd better hone your knowledge of Ohio geography.

Meigs County, where this dairy is located, voted heavily for George Bush in both 2000 and 2004 and for John McCain last year (by almost identical margins, nearly 60-40).

You are the person with the flawed logic. Where in any of my posts have I implied anything about "exacting revenge"? That is your term, not mine, and, frankly, it's offensive.

As I said in my first post, elections have consequences. THAT is my point. The folks at the dairy are now witnessing them firsthand.

I do hope we Democrats can fix it, that is what we do and this cause seems like a good one.

[amborin]

18. K & R

same prob with corn, soybeans, etc........

and some folks scream about Mexican immigrants on the border...yet think nothing of the huge U.S. farm subsidies that put the Mexican small holders out of business.....

they simply can't afford the price of seed, they can't make a living, abandon their small plots, and wind up on the U.S. border

INSANITY

[Pastiche423]

20. K&R!

[ThomWV]

21. This is awfully misleading

Virtually all dairy operations are 'small' farmers, its the nature of the beast that making milk is not a business that responds well to economies of scale. What is being talked about here is on the processing end and what they are trying to demand with regulation is safe milk. It doesn't mean jack shit that the cow dances around in the sun and that is not what this is about.

[Tashca]

22. Yes....the processing end.

It appears the lobbyist are pushing it as a safe milk intuitive. Warren Taylor is saying his milk that he is processing is more nutritious and better for you. By allowing the rules to take out his operation consumers will not have a choice. I don't know enough about the process he is talking about compared to the conventional way to even understand if his milk is not safe. I rarely even drink milk.

He is saying his milk is safe and better for you......the lobbyist appear to be making the claim that maybe his milk is not safe.....they aren't saying that directly, but implying it through the rule change. I wish I knew the truth.....

[roody]

25. The truth is that bovine growth hormone is not good for us

or the cows. Drink it without bovine growth hormone.

[City Lights]

24. K&R

:mad: :grr: