The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.19           May 18, 1998 
 
 
N.Y. Dairy Farmers Face Price Squeeze  

BY DON MACKLE AND WENDY LYONS
NEW YORK - Rising production costs and the steady lowering of federal milk price supports continues to force family dairy farmers in New York state out of business.

"Twelve years ago we had 15,000 family dairy farms in the state. Now there are less than 9,000," said Jo Bates, a dairy farmer and president of the Empire State Family Farm Alliance.

In an interview at her farm in the rolling hills of northeastern New York, Bates explained, "We went from 1,000 dairy farms to 300 here in Washington County in the last 10 years." In the first six months of 1997 New York state lost 200 additional dairy farms.

Dairy farming generates more than one-half of the total farm cash receipts in New York state, which is the third- largest dairy producing state in the nation. Bates explained that 70 percent of all milk is produced by family farmers.

New York dairy farmers are unable to get prices for their milk that meet their costs of production, according to John and Pat Bender. The two are vegetable and greenhouse farmers in Johnstown, New York, and members of the Empire State Family Farm Alliance. As of April 10, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that the farmers' cost of production is $19 per hundredweight milk, the Benders reported. The price they receive for the milk has varied recently from below $12 to as much as $14.15 per hundredweight last December.

Federal price supports have been systematically reduced since the 1980s from roughly $15 per hundredweight to around $10 today, said John Bender.

These price supports actually benefit the cooperative management and handlers, the Benders explained. "The supports are actually paid to the handlers when the government buys the product," said John Bender. "They pay the farmers that price," added Pat Bender, "but they sell the product they don't need immediately to the government. The government stores it and the dealers can buy it back when they need it to sell."

"In a way, the government lends them the money until they need the product," said John Bender.

Bates pointed out that lowering of price supports has not stopped milk processors and retailers from raising the price to consumers. While the price farmers receive is actually slightly lower than what they were paid in 1981, the cost of a half gallon of milk has risen by almost 90 cents.

Currently, the actual price dairy farmers are paid each month by milk buyers varies based on a pricing formula set on cheese prices on the Chicago Board of Trade. Bates said the handlers that buy from farmers issue checks a month after buying the milk. "You only find out what the price was after you get the check," she said.

John Bender explained that farmers often find themselves in a weak position to press their demands to receive a living income "By law, farmers have to sell their milk within two days. The buyers can go somewhere else to buy it, even if they pay slightly more, until a particular farmer or co-op decides to sell it at the price they offer," he said. Many farmers have survived this long only because increasing land values have allowed them to continue borrowing to get through bad years.

New York farm activists are currently fighting to keep the income they receive up by lobbying the New York legislature to join the Northeast Dairy Compact. The compact was authorized under the 1996 Farm Bill as part of the federal government's efforts to reduce farm subsidy programs. A 26-member commission from among the six participating New England states has set a base price for fluid milk above the national milk subsidy price. The price is set for six months at a time, providing some measure of stability for farmers.

Bates and the Benders acknowledged the efforts to get into the Northeast Compact was not as ambitious a demand as calling for "parity," a demand long made by farm activists.

Parity is a calculation used to describe the relationship between prices farmers receive for their commodities and their production costs and living expenses. One hundred percent parity means that if the costs of production today are 50 percent higher than they were in 1910 to 1914, then the prices the farmer gets should be 50 percent higher than they were then. The index is based on those years when there was a relationship between costs and prices supposedly favorable to farmers.

Bates said parity for dairy farmers today would bring farmers $27.60 per hundredweight.

"It's like getting a minimum wage that's still not good enough," said John Bender referring to his efforts to get New York into the compact.

Bates compared the compact to "a Band-Aid that fits on your pinky. Parity would be stitches and a bandage." But, she stressed, getting into the compact would be a step forward in providing some stability for farmers.

The New York state senate has passed legislation approving entry into the Northeast Dairy Compact. To go into effect it still needs approval by the state assembly and the signature of the governor.

The farm activists continue reaching out in solidarity with other farmers and explaining conditions family farmers face. John Bender attended the Second National Black Land Loss Summit in North Carolina earlier this year. He joined in hearings and protests in Washington D.C. backing the discrimination suit of Black farmers against the USDA.

Bates was interviewed on a half-hour radio program broadcast over the public radio station WNYC. She described the situation facing dairy farmers, in answer to the campaign to blame them for high milk prices.

Don Mackle is a member of the United Auto Workers. Wendy Lyons is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and the Socialist Workers candidate for attorney general in New York.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home