Here’s a story by Lidia Waddington, from the Iowa Independent on the problems conventional dairy farmers are facing as the price paid to them falls to half of what it was, while the store price for dairy products remains the same. But first some commentary on their situation and that of raw milk farmers, from Yupfarming — For Dairy Farmers , damned if you do, damned if you don’t:
“Below is an article on the plight of most American dairy farmers – a near instruction manuel on how corporations get rid of farmers. Flood the market with cheaper imports, raise the price of all inputs, and there you have it.
Some dairy farmers escape this. They stay outside the system, taking nothing from the USDA, selling nothing to middlemen. Who are they?
Raw milk dairy farmers. They raise their cows, milk them, and sell direct to customers. They have no Dairy Farmers of America to contend with, no imports to compete with, little rising feed costs because their dairy cows often live mostly on grass. It’s a sane, clean, local system that is growing even in hard times, even with no advertising, even without obstacle after obstacle. And it’s a system that provides real food security for neighboring areas.
But they do have one problem – having mastered all the farming and economical ones – their own governnment is aggressively trying to destroy them. Continue reading
The Bovine 