UPDATE 1

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This is the first update of the WWW.LIFTINGTHEYOKE.COM website. As you will note, I don't go into any great detail. If you want more information you need to delve into the various websites where there is in-depth material on the subject matter.
Ron Krupp - July, 2009


VERMONT NEWS
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* The Further Demise of the Vermont Dairy Farmer
The state's dairy industry is one the brink of collapse. Prices to dairy farmers have fallen to record lows even as production costs continue to rise. In the past five years, Vermont has lost over 250 dairy farms, leaving the state with 1,046 farms. Thirty two farms have gone under so far in 2009. The dairy industry represents 70 percent of Vermont's agricultural economy.

Here the situation in a nutshell: Middlebury farmers received $11.28 per hundredweight in June of 2009 compared to $18.91 per hundredweight in June of 2008. This adds up to a loss of $7 a hundredweight. The state average of a gallon of milk to consumers fell from $4.28 in January of 2009 to $3.45 in June of 2009. During the same period, the price being paid to for milk delivered to Middlebury fell from $1.16 a gallon to 97 cents a gallon. It costs on average $1.50 a gallon to produce a gallon of milk.

David Montagne, a Franklin County dairy farmer, is considering selling 200 acres of land in Swanton to a big-box store to make up for falling milk prices. He told the Vermont Milk Commission that he is loosing $100 a cow every month.

Senator Bernie Sanders appealed to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to provide higher milk prices to farmers under the Federal Milk Marketing Order. The loss of dairy farms would have a huge economic impact on the state. Dairy farms are one of the main reasons for the tourist industry in Vermont.

The milk prices paid to farmers have gone down in part because there is a glut of milk in the system. At the same time farmer production costs have risen because of the high price of feed, the shortage of canola feed grain and the high cost of gasoline.

Add to this the depressed economy and monopoly conditions in the dairy marketplace. According to Senator Sanders, while the price paid to farmers continues to decline - the processors and distributors are making lots of money. In other words, the drop in prices paid to farmers has not coincided with in drop in prices to consumers and the high profit margins of dairy processors, distributors and supermarkets.

Sanders points out the near-monopoly conditions of Dean Foods Inc. of Texas which controls 70 percent of the New England's milk products and 40 percent of the national market.

Dean sells processed milk to Wal-Mart Supercenters, Sam's Club, Giant and Stop & Shop. They also own Horizon Dairies, the largest organic dairy in the country. Sanders asked to meet with Dean Foods to discuss how much they pay Vermont's dairy farmers but they declined stating the federal government sets milk prices. Sanders said the government sets minimum prices and that Dean Foods makes massive profits as the expense of farmers.

Sanders asked the Justice Department to investigate whether milk processors, such as Dean foods, are enriching themselves at the expense of farmers. Dean Foods profits climbed from $30 million in the first quarter of 2008 to $76.2 million for the first quarter of 2009.

Sanders said, "We're supposed to be living in a country that embraces competition in the marketplace and free enterprise but that's clearly not happening when one company controls 70 percent of the market."

Solutions and Initiatives:
. The most immediate assistance would be to increase the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) safety net payments to help ward off a full disaster. When prices drop below c$14, the MILC subsidy kicks in. With farmers spending between $18 and $19 for a hundred pounds of milk and receiving $12 for a hundred pounds of milk, MILC subsidies of $2 and $3 dollars would help even though are not sufficient.

. A minimum six-month interest free extension or debt forgiveness to dairy farmers on USDA loans would provide some relief.

. Another initiative would be to start an emergency program that pay farmers for hamburger meat from cows brought to slaughter. The meat could be distributed to domestic and international nutrition programs. Another initiative would be to make more powdered milk from surplus milk and store this commodity.

. Finally, there is a nationwide program to lower the supply of milk by culling cows from dairy herds. This would cut the surplus of milk and farmers would receive a higher price. This is a longer term solution. There is talk of going more to a demand-supply system similar to the one in Canada where only enough milk is produced to meet the consumer demand.

Roger Allbee, the Vermont Secretary of Agriculture and chairperson of the Vermont Milk Commission (VMC) said, "The dairy farms must be insulated from the unpredictable price fluctuations and market manipulations that have plagued our farmers." Allbee recently met with Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack has created an advisory group that would recommend changes to the federal milk pricing system.

Allbee said dairy farmers on the Northeast realized a price collapse was coming but couldn't get an allocation on the $787 billion federal stimulus program.

Bob Wellington, an economist with Agri-Mark Inc. regional milk cooperative, said that the global recession played a large role in the collapse of milk prices. Dairy farmers in the U.S. used to sell 10 percent of their products internationally and that now has been cut in half. He also said that Americans have cut back on eating out. McDonald's has reduced the number of slices of cheese from two to one in a double cheeseburger. Wellington said that volatile prices mostly benefit large-scale grocery stores. They raise prices when milk prices are on the upswing and decrease prices, slowly, when milk prices fall.

The VMC had proposed to set up a fee to be paid by milk producers to the state's dairy farmers. The VMC plans to meet with milk processors such as Ben & Jerry's, Booth Brothers, Cabot, Dean Foods, Cabot and Hood. The goal is to redistribute some of the profits from the bottlers and retailers to dairy farmers. This plan has not worked in the past due to interstate commerce rules.

. This information was taken from articles in the Burlington Free Press. I have written extensively on the Vermont Dairy Farmer: An Endangered Species. If you want more information on the subject, please email me at: woodchuck37@hotmail.com.

* The Vermont Milk Company (VMC) shut its doors on July 18 due to poor sales and a high debt load. It was founded three years. The dairy was formed by farmers and investors who were seeking stable milk prices and added value to its products. VMC made yogurt, cheese curds and ice cream. From what I heard, one of their main contracts to supply cheese curds to a Vermont company was canceled. About 40 dairy farms have been lost this year in Vermont.
There is a move by local citizens to resurrect VMC. Stay tuned.
Go to Vermont Milk Company on the web for more information.

* The Fat Hen Natural Food store in Vergennes shut its doors a few months ago. From what I heard, even though business was good, the owners could not afford the rent.

* An Inventory and Assessment of Recent Local Food Initiatives
Prepared for - The Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Council 2008
by Virginia Nickerson 802-223-6979
vnic@umich.edu Go online for the complete report

* Water Buffalo - Yogurt
Bufala di Vermont is moving back to its homeland in Quebec from Woodstock, Vermont. Frank Abballe is taking his 500 shaggy water buffalo bovines to a farm 20 minutes north of the Vermont border. Abballe said the cost of feed was too high in Vermont. He plans to build a slaughterhouse on the current site and turn it into a conventional feedlot for baby sheep. We'll see.

* Wine Country Notes
Vermont looks to become a new place for growing grapes into wine. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture wants Vermont to become known as a wine-producing region. Wine currently produces $5 million in revenues. There are 17 licensed wineries and more than 6 more will be licensed in the next year. Vermont wineries won 16 medals in the Eastern States Exposition in June of 2009. Wine is beginning to show up in area restaurants.

We already know about artisan cheese, bread and beer. Climate may be a limiting factor. Grapes that tend to like a cooler climate may have a hard time in Vermont. Northeastern Vine Company in Poultney, Vermont sells root stock. Most of the stock originated in Minnesota where crosses of French and American grapes were made.

Perhaps one day, folks will follow the cheese, beer, bread and wine trails through the Green Mountains.

* Whole Foods announced plans to build a store in South Burlington on an undeveloped piece of land. Whole Foods, whose main offices are located in Austin, Texas - has the largest number of organic food stores in the U.S. Coming to an area already over-loaded with natural food stores seems predatory to some. You already have City Market, Healthy Living and Natural Provisions. Healthy Living, the largest natural food store in Vermont at 30,000 square feet, is only a mile from the proposed 45,000 square food site of Whole Foods. Whole Foods currently has 273 stores. For the story on Whole Foods and the communities response, go to Seven Days, July 22-29 - Big Fish.


NATIONAL NEWS
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Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. One-third are obese.

Columnist, Ellen Goodman - Article -
Beginning of the End of Big Food - The Boston Globe
Goodman describes "Overweight America" as a business plan.
She writes about David Kessler's best seller - The End of Overeating - An investigation into an industry that wants us to eat more.

Kessler writes about how the food industry has learned to produce "hyperpalatable combinations of sugar, fat and salt" that not only appeals to us but has the capacity for addiction. Kessler uses words like "cravibility" and "conditioned overeating." The industry makes us in food addicts by spiking our food. As one food industry executive admitted to Kessler, "Everything that has made us successful as a company is the problem."

Kessler likens the obesity epidemic with the tobacco epidemic.
We as a society need to change our attitudes towards Big Food just like we've done with cigarettes.

DOCUMENTARY
FOOD,INC.
This is a new popular documentary that does for food what SICKO did for health care. The producer is Robert Kenner. Co-produced by Eric Schlosser - Fast Food Nation - Food Inc. covers the basics when it comes to the politics of food and farming. Its purpose is to first, to shock and awe watchers with the dangers of our industrial food supply. Food Inc. documents the costs to the land, workers and customers of a food industry that makes it cheaper to buy fast food than fresh food.

Second, it focuses on the advantages of buying local. The 93-minute documentary has segments such as Unintended Consequences, The Dollar Menu and In the Grass. Michael Pollen, the author of the Omnivore's Dilemma, helps to narrate the film. Food Inc. covers many of the same areas as Lifting the Yoke.

The Community Food Security website recently provided information on: Money for Farm to School Programs
Child Nutrition Bills
The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009
USDA Releases Food Desert Study
Community Gardens of 2009
FY 2010 Ag Appropriations
Cornucopia Institute News 7/2009
* Release: Washington Post Investigation of USDA's Organic Mismanagement.

* Dean Foods in creating "natural" dairy products using conventional milk. Dean Foods controls over 70 percent of the milk processing in the country and they also control the processing of organic milk through companies like Horizon. The new "natural milk" will come under the Horizon label. This is a new product category.

* USDA Report: Corporate Imports from China
6-16-2009 American organic farmers are being sold out.

Organic Consumers Association (OCA) News

* A new study revealed major health problems linked to genetically engineered foods and pesticides. Journal of Biological Science.
GMOs are now found in 80 percent of (non-organic) sold in the U.S., as well as the majority of animal feed in the EU. Check this out on the web.

* There have been violations of national organic standards in the organic dairy industry (including Horizon and Aurora). They continue to unfairly undercut ethical brands by using cheaper, inhumane confinement feedlots where cows have limited or no access to required pasture.

* Many consumers believe that natural is "greener" than organic. Natural is basically unregulated - organic must meet government standards. See July 9, 2009 news from OCA on Natural Foods, Factory Farms and Organic Integrity.

* Whose Killing Organic Foods? Horizon, Sik, Whole Foods Market
July 1,2009.