More than 50 rural, agriculture, and labor organizations signed a letter demanding that Congress and the Department of Agriculture do more to support dairy farmers as low prices continue to threaten small and mid-size dairies across the country. The organizations include the National Family Farm Coalition, the Food Chain Workers Alliance, the Rural Coalition, Pesticide Action Network North America, and many others.
The letter, sent to the leadership of the Senate and House agriculture committees and to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, lists five policy recommendations to improve the lot of dairy farmers. The recommendations include holding hearings on the Federal Milk Marketing Order system in the coming nine months, implementing a supply management program to stabilize milk prices, and placing an immediate moratorium on federal guaranteed lending and Environmental Quality Incentives Program funding for the construction of large-scale dairy CAFOs.
The estimated cost of production for milk is currently around $22 per hundred pounds, and the average payment for dairy farmers is hovering around $15 per hundred pounds. As a result, dairies are shuttering across the country, particularly in the Northeast, where dairy farms are relatively small. The problem has been exacerbated by dairy cooperatives and processors cutting contracts with their farmers due to an oversupply of milk. Consolidation in the dairy cooperative and processing sectors means that few competitors remain in many regions of the country, leaving farmers with few options if they are dropped by a buyer.
USDA recently overhauled the Margin Protection Program, an insurance policy for dairy farmers that was poorly received when it initially launched in 2015. In its first year of operation, the program collected $73 million in premiums from dairy farmers but returned just $700,000 to struggling farmers. The rest of the money was sent to the U.S. Treasury. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced legislation in February that would return that money to dairy farmers.
Dairy farmers’ mental health has become an increasingly pressing concern as farms continue to close. In February, the dairy cooperative Agri-Mark included information about a suicide hotline along with its farmers’ milk checks. Members of Congress have introduced legislation that would fund more mental health resources for farmers. A 2016 report from the Center for Disease Control found that members of the occupational group “farming, fishing, and forestry” had the highest suicide rate. That data did not differentiate between farmers and ranchers, who have been the face of current policy efforts, and farmworkers, who are also included in that occupational group.