WHO IS GOING TO SAVE SMALL DAIRIES?
When surrounded by dozens of products in a grocery store, each with enticing pops of colors and carefully crafted slogans, the consequences of opting for a national brand instead of a local one are veiled by worries of breaking your new year's resolution or the desire to pinch pennies. What likely does not cross your mind are the farmers, families, and feed companies that you disenfranchise by supporting a large corporation. The astonishing fact is that each of our seemingly minor choices in the dairy aisle that take up only seconds of our day have very real impacts on America’s family-owned dairies.
BUT FIRST, IT ISN'T JUST FAMILY-OWNED DAIRIES THAT ARE IN DANGER
All statistics are from The Federal Bureau of Agriculture's 2020 Report.
Milk production in the U.S. has grown every year in the last ten years.
U.S Milk production per cow averaged 23,391 pounds in 2019, which was 241 pounds above 2018’s 23,150.
American milk production per cow has increased around 10.6% since 2010
There were 3,281 fewer licensed dairy operations in 2019 than in 2018, when the number dropped by 2,73.
The above data point represents the larger decline by more than 50%, from 70,375 in 2003 to 34,187 in 2019.
We know the industry as a whole is in trouble. How do smaller farms stack up?
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A blatant distribution of wealth is clear in the fact that from 1992 to 2018, more than 94,000 family dairies went out of business
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The USDA reports that while companies with 2,500+ cows are only responsible for 1.3 percent of farms, they represented a mighty 35.3 percent of milk production
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The NFU reports that the median size of a dairy farm is approximately 250 cows, and farms with less than 200 cows represent 87 percent of all dairy farms.
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Consolidation has almost abolished competition in many agriculture markets, and family farmers are left with no say in the cost of inputs or the income they receive for their products.
“The best advice I can give to these folks, dairy farmers, is to sell out as fast as you can.”
- Joe Schroeder, Farm Aid Advocate
ARE STATE LEGISLATORS TOO REMOVED FROM THE INDUSTRY, OR WILL THEY COME TO THE RESCUE OF SMALL-SCALE DAIRIES?
State legislators have the power to benefit small farmers possibly more than anyone else. Unlike consumers, the legislation passed by lawmakers have prolonged effects and can reach a wider range of people. Alternatively, this legislation will take longer to formulate and enact. Because of this, legislators who have no stake in the small dairy industry may not use their power to its best advantage.