Human Side of Dairy Crisis

A fellow Iowan, Sherry, author of A Feather Adrift blog, sent me this link to a dairy-related article on the Iowa Independent website: Psychological Attachments Make Hard Times Even Harder on Dairy Farms. Thank you, Sherry!

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Here's a paragraph from the article:

“Consumers have become disconnected from the food supply…….They look at rural as a recreation area, as a place to tour for beauty. We have some fairly good indications that once we are more than three generations removed from the farm, we lose the emotional connections to the land. Our understanding of where food comes from deteriorates because we kind of take it for granted.”

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Quite possibly that is true. The vast majority of Americans live in urban settings; time continually marches onward, and, yes, many people no longer have a connection to the land......no rural grandparents or aunts and uncles, etc., to visit out on “the farm". An entire world of comprehension is lost.

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Each of us modern Americans lives in our own insulated little bubble......we are quite knowledgeable about our own lifestyle, but that's about it. We look to the mass media for information about the world at large. We watch brief scenes on the evening news and listen to the accompanying sound bytes and blurbs and then consider ourselves "informed". I, a rural person, might watch a news report about big-city crime and conclude that cities are dangerous places. A city dweller may see a news report originating from a large factory-style dairy operation and conclude that all dairy farms are like that. Both conclusions are erroneous, of course.

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I'll bore you by stating once again that the dairy farm I live on is small......we milk 70-80 cows and have 200 acres of land. My husband grew up on this farm; it was and remains a family-owned and operated business, plus it is our home. We can't just "take this job and shove it" when times are tough. We're talking about our whole life here, not a 40-hour/week job with time clocks to punch and weekends off. We dairy farmers needn't be concerned about “taking our job home with us” because our home and our “job” are entirely intertwined.

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And, yes, dairy farmers do become very attached to their animals, as the article states. The cows become like family, though, at a different level than human family members, of course. The concept shouldn’t be difficult for city dwellers to understand…..think of how attached you are to your pet dog or cat!

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Maybe no one cares anymore how their food is produced. That very well may be the case. People, being people, want cheap food and plenty of it. Who cares if the small farmers are forced out of business in favor of large factory farms.....as long as the grocery store shelves remain well-stocked. Many farmers believe the government would like to see small farmers throw in the towel......I don't know if that's the case, but I've heard farmers voice that opinion many times over the years, no matter which party is in power in Washington.

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In my own very simplistic view of things, I see the trend toward very large dairy operations (particularly as they move into the Midwest, a region with a traditional base of small family-owned and operated dairy farms) as a factor in the current dairy crisis. There is too much milk flooding the market, causing the milk prices to plummet. (Expenses never plummet, that's for sure.....they continually rise!) The same thing is happening in the pork industry. Its like when big box chain stores crammed full of stuff move into a town and put the small stores out of business. Of course, city fathers welcome the big stores for tax revenue purposes. That's the good, old American way.....investors getting together and building a business, sometimes even when there isn't a genuine need for it. Glut and overkill......definitely that's the American way of doing business.

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Anyway......enough of my sour bellyaching......please read the article linked to above if you have time. (The photo shows a renegade Canadian thistle in residence in our oat field, which is nearing harvest, as evidenced by the golden color of the grain heads.)

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Have a great day!

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P.S. - Here another article.....from The Dairy Star newspaper out of Minnesota: Taking No Bull

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