We’re not out of the woods on the country’s current dairy crisis. Yes, the free fall in milk prices that pushed hundreds of farmers out of business last year seems to have stopped, and that’s very good news. Via Syracuse.com:
Mexico, NY — Mexico dairy farmers Gary and Jim Hurlbut were making $1.03 for each gallon of milk they produced this time last year.
This year, their take is up to about $1.30 a gallon.
“We need it,” Gary said. “It’s still tight, though.”
But the situation has not completely reversed. Indeed, many dairy farmers are “drowning in debt” according to the Syracuse.com article, and credit for dairy farmers remains very tight. With prices so far below the cost of production, the various loan programs available to dairy farms are life-blood. Unfortunately, that lifeblood is drying up:
Jim Barber, [New York State] Farm Service Agency state executive director, said loan requests at the federal agency are surpassing last year, which was a record year.
In fiscal year 2008, the agency made 516 loans for $68 million.
In fiscal 2009, the agency’s $66 million available to loan in New York state was supposed to last through the year. The money was gone in March and was supplemented by federal stimulus money. The agency made 750 loans, either direct or guaranteed, for more than $110 million.
Barber said the agency so far this fiscal year — Oct. 1 through now — has processed 450 loans totaling more than $79 million. And the agency is out of money.
To call attention to their plight, dairy farmers in New York have been planning a “milk dump” or milk strike this Fourth of July weekend. The dumping began yesterday in Cement City. From MLive:
On Sunday [July 4th], to protest the dropping income of all dairy farmers [Woody] Wittenberg participated in a nationwide protest as he dumped out 1,300 gallons of raw milk. It ran from a hose down his driveway and onto Cary Street.
“We get what we receive. We don’t set our price,” Wittenberg said. “I don’t know a business in the United States of America who takes what they can get.
It’s about as drastic a protest as one can imagine, ruining one’s livelihood this way, and dumping milk is an image that binds this current economic crisis with the Great Depression.
I’m wondering if readers have heard about milk strikes in your area. Are you a farmer who took part? Leave links or testimony in the comments, if you’ve got any information for us.
UPDATES:
Via @AndyArthur (Twitter): Waterville NY Dairy Farmers Dump Milk
From the blog Wasted Food: “[J]ust maybe the only instance of food waste I can support.”
