COVENTRY – Mid-morning on a cold October day, most dairy farmers would be engrossed in their daily farm chores or harvesting acres of corn. But yesterday, more than 100 area farmers put off these important tasks to raise their voices about the current state of the dairy industry.
“This is our life. This is all of our lives,” said Mary Klecha-Conroe of Maple Dream Farm in Coventry, where 130 farmers, agriculture advocates and state politicians gathered for a rally Tuesday.
Organized by Assemblyman Cliff Crouch (R,I - Guilford) and Chenango County Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers, the event was designed to draw attention to the plight faced by dairy producers who are struggling to survive on current milk prices, which have fallen well below the average cost of production.
“People need to realize it’s not bad, it’s catastrophic,” said Assemblyman Tony Jordan (R,C - Jackson), who also attended the rally, along with Assemblyman Jim Bacalles (R,C,I - Corning).
Crouch, Jordan, Bacalles and some of their other colleagues in the Assembly are calling upon Governor David Paterson to use federal stimulus money and/or state resources to provide a total of $150 million in emergency funding to New York’s dairy farmers. Their dairy assistance proposal calls for $75 million to be allocated as soon as possible, with an additional $75 million to follow in the Spring if milk prices still have not bounced back by that time.
“It’s a Band-Aid, ... but that’s what we need right now,” said Crouch, stressing the need for federal regulators to work on a long term solution to the industry’s underlying problems, including the complexities of the current milk pricing system.
Despite opposition from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and others in Albany, the assemblyman said he would continue to garner support for his proposal.
“We’re going to fight for this,” he said.
Instability in the dairy industry has far-reaching consequences, according to Crouch, in terms of national security, food safety and the viability of other related businesses.
“Today’s dairy rally isn’t about saving a few cows, or saving a few cows,” agreed Vickers, but rather about maintaining jobs and stabilizing the economy in Chenango County, Upstate New York and ultimately the state as a whole.
The topic is an emotional one for local farmers, many of whom acknowledge that they are teetering on the edge.
“I’m a ninth generation dairy farmer struggling to survive,” explained Mark Johnson of Guilford, who said his head was spinning from all he’d heard. He asked Crouch if he could give him an “honest time frame” for when he believed things would start to improve or change in the industry.
“I won’t give you a line of bull,” the assemblyman replied. “My opinion is it can’t get here fast enough, and (when it does) it probably won’t be high enough.”
Many of the local farmers present spoke about their frustrations with the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, the importation of Milk Protein Concentrates and how, despite the dramatic fall of farm gate milk prices, consumers are still being gouged in the supermarket.
“No one in Washington has the intestinal fortitude to confront this issue head on,” said South New Berlin dairyman Ken Dibbell. “Somehow we’ve got to hold their feet to the fire.”
Dibbell and others present insisted they weren’t interested in “welfare” programs, but in real reform.
“We don’t want a handout,” he said. “We just want to be paid what it costs to produce the milk and have a little bit left over.”