Dairy Farmers SOS
Dairy Crisis
Farmers are hurting. A Vermont dairy operation is for sale that had been run by the same family since George Washington was president. Warning of "a disaster in the making," Sen. Bernie Sanders has met with and sent a letter to the U.S. agriculture secretary about boosting price supports. He also asked the Justice Department antitrust division to take "a very serious look" at Dean Foods Inc., the Dallas-based company that dominates the New England milk market. To watch a video of the senator's remarks, click here.
"The dairy industry has been, and remains, a vital part of Vermont's economic engine and a central part of the fabric of our communities. All Vermonters understand that if family-based dairy farming is to continue in any significant way in our state and throughout the country, America's dairy farmers must receive fair prices for the products they produce," Sanders said in a letter inviting Dean Foods CEO Gregg L. Engles to come to Vermont and meet with dairy farmers. Dean controls approximately 70 percent of the dairy market in New England and 40 percent nationally. It processes and markets such well-known brands as Dean's, Garelick Farms, and Horizon Organic. It sells processed milk to major retailers such as Wal-Mart Supercenters, Sam's Club, Giant, and Stop & Shop.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the All Milk Price paid to dairy farmers dropped over the last year from $19.30 per hundredweight to $11.40 per hundredweight. In other words, in June 2008 farmers were receiving nearly 70 percent more per gallon of milk than they were in June 2009. Prices that dairy farmers are receiving today are at the same level as they were three decades ago, even though the costs of production and every other expense facing farmers has gone up many times over that period. The drop in prices paid to farmers has not coincided with a drop in prices for consumers. While New England dairy farmers receive just $1.00 per gallon of milk, Americans are paying on average $3.01 per gallon at their local store.From the Press
07/30/2009 - Aid sought for dairy struggling farmers (Burlington Free Press) »
Vermont lawmakers seek federal assistance
WASHINGTON - Responding to an economic crisis in the dairy industry, Vermont’s congressional delegation spent Wednesday working on ways to help struggling farmers stay afloat.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders were among senators who met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to press for a short-term increase in the price the federal government pays for milk and dairy products in the marketplace.
Sanders said every possible approach to address the crisis should be examined, including an increase in the dairy support price. Continuing to lose farms “will be a disaster not only for the agricultural community but for the economy of the state and all of our people,” he said.
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07/28/2009 - Sanders spars with Dean Foods CEO over milk prices (Burlington Free Press) »
The CEO of the nation's largest milk processor declined an invitation to speak to Vermont dairy farmers about plummeting milk prices and said milk processors "do not set the price paid to dairy farmers."
That rejection prompted a sharply worded reply from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Sanders blames Dallas-based Dean Foods Co., which he says controls 70 percent of New England's milk market and 40 percent of the U.S. market, for helping suppress milk prices to generate massive profit gains.
In a phone interview Monday, Sanders said he was pursuing an anti-trust investigation of the dairy industry through the U.S. Justice Department -- which, he says, could lead to the breakup of Dean Foods.
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Well....I have decided to boycott Dean Food products (you can look them up on their website) and I wrote Dean Foods a personal letter telling them I am doing so and why. I also told them I was going to post this up on the internet until they decided to meet with the Dairy Farmers.
If you want to write them a letter too, their address is:
Dean Foods Consumer Response
P.O. Box 763
Horsham, PA 19044-0763