This piece by Jack Lazor was originally published as an op-ed in the VTDigger. We’re sharing it because it provides important context for a discussion about agriculture policy and how as a country and community we make sure everyone has enough to eat while supporting the farmers and ranchers who make it possible. He looks at it from the perspective of a Vermont dairy farmer, but it addresses all of us.
Just about every dairy farmer in Vermont will tell you that their industry is in a grave crisis situation. The experts tell us that our present system of pricing commodity milk from the farm is broken and pretty much unrepairable. There is simply too much milk being produced. According to the agricultural economists, we are now in a global marketplace and milk prices show no sign of improvement in the near future. Several well-respected commentators have recently made some pretty radical suggestions they feel will help the situation. For some time now, James Maroney of Leicester has been pushing for a statewide transition to organic dairy practices as a way to improve water quality in Lake Champlain. More recently, Roger Allbee, a very well respected former Secretary of the Vermont Department of Agriculture, has suggested that the only cure for the present milk pricing malaise is to move the Vermont dairy industry en masse into the organic sector. Reactions to these proposals have been rather predictable. The conventional co-ops that handle the lion’s share of Vermont produced milk are incredulous and dead set against any such change while folks in the organic camp are elated that a former agriculture secretary would recognize the viability and economic advantages of organic farming systems.
Let’s forget about policy proposals for a moment and take a look backwards. A little historical perspective always helps to guide us into the future. Farmers have always strived to improve themselves and their practices. Our present land grant college system was developed late in the nineteenth century to study improved agricultural practices and encourage farmers to adopt them. The emphasis has always been on increased production accompanied by easier and more efficient ways of doing things. Everything we now accept as standard fare in dairying has emerged from this system. The modern milking machine and bulk tank, advances in plant and animal breeding, the adoption of machine power, fertilizers and pesticides and genetic engineering are all products of this system. Advancement in modern agriculture has always concentrated on yield and quantity first. For example, the average corn yields in the early 1930’s before the widespread of adoption of hybrids was 36 bushels to the acre. Today’s average corn yields are approaching 200 bushels to the acre. The dairy cow that produced 8,000 pounds of milk per year in the 1960’s now produces 18,000 pounds at the bare minimum. It is now a foregone conclusion that if we don’t produce as much milk or hay as we did last year, we are going backwards.
The 1950’s and early 1960’s were watershed years for all sectors of agriculture in this country. The oil and gas industry that had so successfully developed the production of nitrogen from natural gas for explosives in World War Two, began developing nitrogen fertilizers for use on crops by farmers. Chemical herbicides now allowed farmers to forget about weed pressure and up the general population of plants per acre. The result of all these so called “improvements” was increased plenty, inexpensive food and the beginnings of farm attrition and consolidation. The Vermont dairy farmer who made a comfortable living on a small farm milking 15 or 20 cows into milk cans was rapidly disappearing by 1960. Milk cans gave way to bulk tanks as the countryside became electrified and roads improved for larger milk hauling tanker trucks.
Fast forward to the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan entered office. Agricultural subsidies and price supports were slashed leaving all farmers between a rock and a hard place. Vermont farmers who had just been through some of their most prosperous years in the mid to late 70’s were left reeling in much the same manner as they are today. It wasn’t uncommon to see announcements for three or four farm auctions a week. In 1982 and 83, this phenomenon continued for months on end. The fifty to seventy-five cow farm which once had been the backbone of Vermont agriculture, was no longer viable. Most of those who remained on the land followed Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz’s advice of “get big or get out.” Consolidation was the order of the day. Grab the neighbor’s fields, increase your herd size, build a bigger free stall style barn, install a manure lagoon (paid for by the government) and enter the next phase of dairy farming—industrialized production. This spiral of rapid growth affected all segments of the dairy industry. Small milk plants and cheese factories fell by the wayside while the ones that remained gobbled each other up. Here in Vermont, Billings Dairy from White River Junction purchased Kilfassets in Passumpsic. Then Idlenot in North Springfield bought Billings. After a few more years H.P. Hood purchased Idlenot and then Booth Brothers of Barre. Mega dairies with 500 to 1,000 cows became much more commonplace. Tractor trailers hauling milk tankers around the countryside became the standard fare. Everything boiled down to efficiency and economies of scale. Continued low farm gate milk prices meant more had to be done with less.
Much to the credit of Vermont’s dairy farmers, they stepped up to all of these challenges and survived. Increased debt and capitalization costs were necessary to build out the infrastructure of Vermont’s present dairy farming sector. Not even a second thought was given as farmers adopted this new “better” system of milk production. Pastures were no longer necessary because cows were now confined in barns standing on cement floors and eating the same feed mix 365 days a year. Sawdust bedding was eliminated in the modern free-stall because heavily bedded manure would not flow through pumps or store well in lagoons. Upright silos gave way to bunks and all of a sudden the smell of dairy farms began to change. The sweet smell of the old fashioned “shit pile” had been replaced by a much more ammonia/sulfide odor that many found somewhat unpleasant. Box spreaders were replaced by giant liquid manure tankers. As farmers began to travel farther and farther away to more distant fields, large trucks were now employed to haul silage back to the farm and slurry manure from the farm back to field. And last, but not least, the labor force on Vermont dairy farms began to change because cash strapped farmers could no longer afford to pay livable wages to the local Vermont workers. Immigrant Mexican workers replaced the local population all over the state.
This state of affairs is all taking place as our climate clock is ticking away toward disaster. It will become increasingly more difficult to live a normal life on this planet and produce food reliably if the climate continues to be as erratic as we have seen it in the last decade or so. This summer’s drought and last year’s continual rainfall are perfect examples of how much harder it is getting to raise what we need to eat. We all know that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased at unbelievable rates. What many of us don’t realize is that a lot of that atmospheric “carbon” actually came from the soil because of farming practices like too much tillage and continuous row cropping of corn. Vermont dairy farming is removing plenty of carbon from the Earth’s crust and we need to find a way to reverse this trend.
I suggest that Vermont unilaterally declare itself the “sustainable state”. We are so gung ho about renewable energy. Why not do the same for carbon sequestration in our farm and forest soils? It is obvious that federal agricultural policy when it comes to dairying is not working. There is no will for genuine change on the part of the powers that be. It is time we took the bull by the horns, reduced cow numbers on our farms, established realistic and doable milk production quotas and set a fair price for ourselves as farmers. The distant consumer of milk in southern New England needs to know that when they buy milk or a dairy product that originates in Vermont, they are paying extra to a group of Earth stewards who are making this Earth a livable place for their children and grandchildren.
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