State legislators stepping up appeals for dairy bailout
ONEONTA – Local representatives in the state legislature are calling on New York’s governor to use federal stimulus funds to start bailing out struggling dairy farmers across the state.
In a letter to Governor David Paterson dated Friday, New York State Senator James Seward and Assemblyman Pete Lopez requested that the governor allocate at least $60 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to begin providing immediate relief directly to dairy producers.
“Milk prices are dropping and many of our dairy farmers are at the brink,” said Seward, in a joint press release issued earlier this week. “We need to take immediate steps to protect our number one industry, or many small family run farmers will be forced out of business.”
The appeal to the governor was penned following a meeting Seward and Lopez attended in Schoharie County, where the pair listened to farmers and other industry leaders talk about the challenges they are facing.
“While Washington bailed out AIG and other Wall Street businesses and provided hundreds of millions in increased social services funding, dairy farmers across the nation and right here in New York state continued to suffer,” said Lopez. “Many dairy farmers are literally selling the farm. Something needs to be done in order to protect this vital industry.”
According to numbers shared by the legislators, New York’s dairy farmers were receiving an average of $11.50 per hundredweight of milk in June, down from $18.90 twelve months prior and well below the $17.00 per hundredweight estimated by Cornell University as the cost of production for that quantity of milk.
Seward and Lopez are proposing the federal stimulus money be used as a short term solution to the plight faced by New York’s dairy farmers while they wait for action on the federal level.
“The price farmers are receiving for their milk has dropped to 1970s levels, while taxes, fuel prices and other production costs have skyrocketed,” Seward said. “I am encouraged by federal proposals under consideration to fix the archaic milk pricing system, but if we don’t take action now, many of our farmers won’t be around to experience the changes.”
In a letter to Governor David Paterson dated Friday, New York State Senator James Seward and Assemblyman Pete Lopez requested that the governor allocate at least $60 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to begin providing immediate relief directly to dairy producers.
“Milk prices are dropping and many of our dairy farmers are at the brink,” said Seward, in a joint press release issued earlier this week. “We need to take immediate steps to protect our number one industry, or many small family run farmers will be forced out of business.”
The appeal to the governor was penned following a meeting Seward and Lopez attended in Schoharie County, where the pair listened to farmers and other industry leaders talk about the challenges they are facing.
“While Washington bailed out AIG and other Wall Street businesses and provided hundreds of millions in increased social services funding, dairy farmers across the nation and right here in New York state continued to suffer,” said Lopez. “Many dairy farmers are literally selling the farm. Something needs to be done in order to protect this vital industry.”
According to numbers shared by the legislators, New York’s dairy farmers were receiving an average of $11.50 per hundredweight of milk in June, down from $18.90 twelve months prior and well below the $17.00 per hundredweight estimated by Cornell University as the cost of production for that quantity of milk.
Seward and Lopez are proposing the federal stimulus money be used as a short term solution to the plight faced by New York’s dairy farmers while they wait for action on the federal level.
“The price farmers are receiving for their milk has dropped to 1970s levels, while taxes, fuel prices and other production costs have skyrocketed,” Seward said. “I am encouraged by federal proposals under consideration to fix the archaic milk pricing system, but if we don’t take action now, many of our farmers won’t be around to experience the changes.”
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