A glut of organic milk , fueled by gargantuan factory farms , threatens to wash home farmer off their land . Farmers and their advocates participated in an emergency rally July 16 in an feat to manifest their quandary to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack .
Vilsack was in West Salem , Wis. , as part of a national tour .
Under the Bush administration , the USDA was accused of “ looking the other way ” as large corporate agriculture indue in organic fertiliser while allegedly violating Union criterion .
In the dairy sphere , there are now estimated to be 20 prominent industrial dairy , each milking thousands of cows , producing as much as 40 percent of the nation ’s organic Milk River supply .
“ With the retardation in the economy , the market is no longer able to absorb the get supply of organic Milk River , ” tell Mark Kastel , elderly farm policy analyst with The Cornucopia Institute . “ C.P.U. have now cut the price of milk for farmers , and levy production caps . Many family farmers are now in danger of lose their farms . ”
charge as the “ Save the Organic Family Dairy Farm Rally , ” the event was have at La Crosse Interstate Fair in West Salem , Wis. It immediately preface a town hall coming together on rural issues with Vilsack , Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and transfer Secretary Ray LaHood . Secretary Vilsack was ask in to say a few give-and-take to the sodbuster prior to the townsfolk residence hall sitting .
“ His acknowledgment of the dilemma that faces constitutive dairy producers will be a big morale rise , ” say Kastel before the meeting with Vilsack .
In addition to the serious financial loss some farmers are see , two of the largest organic Milk River central processor and handler , Dean Foods ( marketing Horizon milk ) and HP Hood , which have Kemps dairy farm in the Midwest ( marketing Stonyfield milk ) have inform some of their farmers that they will not renew their contracts . “ These corporations have , in essence , signed a financial death warrant for these sodbuster , ” said Kastel .
Many constitutive producers borrow X of thousands of dollars , some well over $ 100,000 , to convert to organic fertiliser and develop their farms . Without contract to sell organic Milk River , many of these operator face bankruptcy and peril lose the farms that have been in their families for multiple generation .
“ The only means we have been able to continue in business organization is to cash in in our retirement IRA , our life savings , ” says Bruce Drinkman , who milk 50 cows with his married woman Mari outside of Glenwood City , Wis. “ If the secretaire of agriculture and others in might do n’t recognize our troth , soon we will turn a loss everything . ”
For years , members in the organic residential district and the National Organic Standards Board , the technical panel mark up by Congress , have appealed to the USDA to crack up down on “ scofflaws ” flex the constituent rule on elephantine factory dairy , mostly in the desert - West .
“ We are asking Secretary Vilsack to view this as a logical emergency and take immediate natural process , to shut down the giant farms that are violating Union organic law , ” Kastel summate . “ Otherwise many of the ethical , severely - working farmers who build this diligence will be drive out of line by cheater . ”
In addition to immediate enforcement natural action against factory farm allegedly “ punt the system , ” Cornucopia has ask Vilsack to call for the Justice Department to look into possible antimonopoly violations by the res publica ’s largest conventional and organic milk bottler and marketer , Dean Foods .
“ I intend to recount the Secretary that there has been a sweetheart relationship between Dean Foods , and other gargantuan agriculture , and the USDA for too long , ” allege John Kinsman , a LaValle , Wisconsin organic dairy farmer . “ We demand fresh management at the National Organic Program , the variety of alteration that President Obama promised during his hunting expedition , ” Kinsman bestow .
While the words over the large factory farms bring out constituent milk is incense to many organic farmers and consumer alike , there is no dearth of organic Milk River that is widely perceived to meet both the letter and feeling of the organic regulation .
TheCornucopia Institutecompleted an in - astuteness sketch last class rate the country ’s 110 organic dairy brands base on their ethical approach to milk production . Nearly 90 pct of all namebrand organic dairy products were highly rated in the scorecard .
“ In every market in this country , in every product family — cheeseflower , butter , trash ointment and Milk River — it is easygoing for consumers to find constituent dairy farm products that unfeignedly meet their expectations , ” allege Will Fantle , research director at Cornucopia . “ In general , consumers can really entrust the organic recording label . These giant corporate dairies are just speculative aberrations . ”
Kastel says they were glad to have Secretary Vilsack come to Wisconsin , America ’s Dairyland , where there are more organic dairy farm farmers than any other state .
“ We know he empathize the promise of organic agriculture for rural America , ” Kastel says , “ We just want to make certain he understand that family bring about milk , conventional and organic , have their spinal column to the wall and desperately need his help . ”
