WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Can Vt. Save its Struggling Dairy Industry?

Can Vt. Save its Struggling Dairy Industry?

Montpelier, Vermont - August 5, 2009

Low milk prices are leaving some farmers on the edge of collapse. Dairy processors and the state's milk commission talked about ways to help farmers. Already in the past week, the federal government announced millions in aid to slightly boost the price paid to farmers.

Wednesday, the group in Montpelier indicated those government moves would be a help, but it's sort of like putting air in a tire that's riddled with holes.

Roger Allbee, Vermont's agriculture commissioner, says, "This group absolutely knows [farmers] need help now."

The milk commission and processors discussed several ideas to get cash to dairy farmers, including asking consumers to pay a little extra for local milk, with the promise that money would go where it's needed.

Vermont farms like the Parent farm in Sheldon have been shutting down, four or five a month lately, because farmers are earning far less than it costs them to care for their animals and equipment. June 14 was Pierre Parent's last day milking. He told WCAX that day, "We're losing an average of $3 a day per cow. So the more cows you've got, the more you lose."

One key processor who was not at Wednesday's meeting is Dean Foods. Middlemen like Dean are criticized as the only ones making money off milk. By some estimates, the Texas giant buys 70 percent of New England milk.

But smaller companies who were at the discussion say they're willing to help where they can. Grafton Village Cheese pays 75 cents above the low market rate for milk. Adam Mueller explains, "Our parent company [The Windham Foundation] is a nonprofit. One of our goals is to promote Vermont's rural communities and this is an additional way to give back to the community to keep our agriculture strong."

Other price support ideas floated included milk supply controls, asking tourists to donate to a Vermont farm preservation fund, and developing partnerships with electric companies to generate power on farms to reduce rates. But Wednesday's meeting was just informal. There will be more talks over the next several weeks.

In the meantime, Vermont's agriculture commissioner admits big companies like Dean Foods are not doing anything wrong by paying low milk prices to farmers. Allbee says it's just the way business works: sometimes market forces mean the little guy is left out in the cold.

But Vermont's congressional delegation is promising to continue pushing for change at the federal level, including a possible anti-trust investigation into whether companies like Dean control too much of the milk world.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News