Vermont Governor Phil Scott’s proposed $50 million bailout of Vermont’s industrial dairy industry is the wrong solution to the perennial economic pain being inflicted on our farm economy. While the assistance is necessary, it must come with a plan to transition away from the cheap, commodity model that is bankrupting dairy farmers by design AND polluting our waterways. Without such a plan, the $50 million amounts to a corporate bailout of Ben & Jerry’s and Cabot Creamery, allowing these dairy giants to continue to pay their farmers less than the cost of production while taxpayers keep the charade afloat – and clean up the messes!
Below is an op/ed by Kevin Ellis that began as a letter to his state representative, urging her to oppose Scott’s industrial dairy bailout. We urge others to join him by sounding off to your state representatives and Governor Scott about this misguided dairy bailout plan. Ellis is a Regeneration Vermont board member and creator of the “Conflict of Interest” blog.
With respect to the proposed $50 million spending on dairy farmers and processors, I hope you will take a very close look at it and begin to move our collective thinking away from a monolithic dairy industry and toward a diversified food system that feeds Vermonters during the pandemic and afterwards.
I understand from watching the video by Agriculture Secretary Tebbetts that $40 million will go to small, medium and large dairy farms. And $10 million goes to processors of dairy products like cheese, butter and ice cream. I feel strongly that the spending on large dairy farms is a mistake because it gets little to nothing in return for the public.
The time has come in Vermont to move away from a commodity industry (large dairy farms) that produces a product that few people want (fluid milk), whose health benefits are nil, pollutes our waterways at great cleanup expense and does little to actually “feed” Vermonters. Further, the amount of cancer-causing chemicals sprayed on the corn eaten by the cows is unhealthy and dangerous.
I have to ask why we continue to subsidize year after year – and now propose to spend millions more directly – on this industry when people are lining our streets for food during a pandemic. In addition, farmers are now dumping their milk for lack of demand during the pandemic and milk prices are historically low.
Why would we do this?
This is no longer the salt of the earth Vermonter making a living from the land and feeding his/her community. This is a mega-industry controlled by powerful corporate dairy co-ops outside Vermont that care little for the food system we should be designing and building here. And the farmers are prisoners of a never-ending lifestyle that bankrupts them in the name of staying afloat – not to mention the animal welfare issues raised by 24-7 confinement even in summer.
The administration of Gov. Scott is proposing to spend $40 million continuing these practices. The Vermont legislature is considering the request.
I acknowledge that dairy is a major part of our economy and that farming exercises a political/emotional tug on our imagination. It does for me and is one of the reasons we moved here 30 years ago. But if we are going to be responsible stewards of public dollars, especially when people are lining up for food and a small check to get them through the week, we should not be handing $40 million to an industry that is no longer beneficial to Vermont’s environment, food system and culture. I live near a huge farm in East Montpelier and I am still trying to understand why they should get a major taxpayer check when most of what they do is spray our fields with chemicals, ship milk out of state and pollute nearby drinking water – no Act 250 permit required.
At the very least, the money should be tied to a migration away from commodity-based, chemical and confinement farming. Stop polluting the rivers? Move to organic? Put your cows on grass? You can have access to the money.
Indeed, the legislature might consider just buying out conventional dairy farmers directly. Pay them to get out of the business and turn the farms to a more productive use. Or pay them to go organic.
I am all for $10 million going to small dairy processors making value-added cheese, ice cream, yogurt and other products. They’re family farmers who need the money. The Lazor’s at Butterworks Farm and the Huards in Craftsbury making goat’s milk and meats. Or the Kimball Brook dairy. They need the money. Unilever and Agrimark, and by extension Ben&Jerrys/Unilever, do not.
In our neighborhood, the Ananda Wellness Farm is having a material positive impact on our community with their CSA and community-based farming. The family revived a derelict farm by growing organic vegetables and fruit. Their business is booming because they take care of their customers in their community.
This money will only delay the inevitable. Milk prices continue to plummet. Big dairy processors squeeze farmers more than ever. And the market for milk shrinks. If you are going to spend the money, at least spend it on giving farmers who want it a way out of a dying business.
Please resist the political pressure to vote for money for large industrial dairy because of its Kodak history in VT. We must move past this monolithic industry to build a food system that feeds us all.
[Originally published at the Conflict of Interest blog.]
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