Thousands of dairy cows off to slaughter - to lower the price of milk (USDA)
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According to the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) website, “U.S. dairy producers have been facing unprecedented losses over the past year due to low milk prices and high input costs… dire economic straits have forced many farmers to exit the industry, oftentimes having to sell their herds or farms.”
An Associated Press article making the web rounds this morning concurs with the NMPF, and adds that many of these farmers are opting to send their herds to slaughter.
The AP story focuses on Jake and Lori Slegers, part of a California dairy farming family who last summer sent their 1500-plus head of cattle to be turned into hamburger.
“He [Jake] said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do,” Lori Slegers told the AP. “Luckily, my boys could do it.”
When the demand for milk – driven by the need in developing nations – was high, American dairy farmers often expanded their herds. When the global economy tanked, demand for milk fell and farmers were left with surpluses that could not be sold.
The Slegers estimate they’ve gone through more than a million dollars in savings to keep the farm afloat, and predicted more staggering financial loss was on the way.
So, in order to reduce the milk supply you stop the production source: dairy cows.
Out of options, the The Slegers enrolled in an industry-run program called Cooperatives Working Together (CWT); a program managed by the National Milk Producers Federation. The CWT pays farmers going out of business to kill — rather than sell — their cows and help remaining dairy operations by reducing the milk supply.
For the first six years of the CWT program the organization had paid for about 275,000 dairy cows to be slaughtered. This year alone, it has paid for more than 225,000 to be killed.
The AP reports individual farmers are sending cows to slaughter at a rate of 55,000 per week, leading a professor at the University of Wisconsin to estimate more than 3 million cows will be killed in a year – all in hopes of raising the prices paid to farmers by milk producers.
But while American dairy farmers face the prospect of culling the herd or losing their farms (and in many cases they go hand-in-hand), the Obama administration has removed the import surcharge on dairy products from Israel.
In a story covered by the Israeli news service, Ynet, President Obama signed last week a presidential memo that eliminated the tariffs on exports of dairy products from Israel to the U.S.
In simple terms, the President of the United States just eliminated another wall of protection for American dairy farmers and stopped the flow of much needed levy cash into our faltering economy.
Slightly more disturbing was the response Pacific Free Press contributor (and executive director of If Americans Knew), Alison Weir, received when she contacted the US Department of Agriculture, where no one she spoke with was aware this policy change had been implemented.
According to Ynet, Israeli dairy exports to the U.S. are “constantly on the rise.” In 2007, the export of milk products (including cheese, yogurt and butter) from Israel to the U.S. totaled $6 million.
In addition, U.S. trade authorities are sending $17,000 back to an Israeli export agent as restitution for a levy placed on butter the United States had recently imported.
In July, the Dairy Farmers of America used a “broad effort” marketing campaign to plead with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to “reverse the current dairy crisis” and to exhaust every possible initiative for “the dairy farmers who are fighting hard to maintain their livelihoods.”
This can’t be one of the initiatives DFA had in mind.
“Thanks to hard work, the American authorities have removed Israel from the list of countries on which the levy is imposed,” Yaakov Poleg, Israel’s Agricultural Ministry attaché, told Ynet. “Moreover, in light of the fact that Israel was removed from the list through a presidential declaration, there is no fear that it will be placed on us again in the future.”
Comments
Don't worry so much about Isreals dairy products being imported to the U.S.. The dollar will stay devalued for a decade or more, so that means the U.S. will be exporting more, and importing much less, especially from countries that have higher valued currencies. The U.S. is turning to an exporting country.
Don't worry about imports, well I'm for free trade and all of that, but allowing another country, I don't care which it is to have free access to our markets while we still have to pay tariffs to have our products sold in theirs is wrong. Regardless if our dollar is weak, there should be fair policy enacted, no free rides!
Mr. President, your arm has been twisted by the Israeli lobbyists and the Zionist government of Israel, causing you to lose your sense of moral responsibility in protecting the family-owned dairy farmers of this country, who are going through hard times keeping their farm from sinking into the murky waters of financial disaster. The dairy farmers are experiencing continuing decrease of income due to some bureaucratic numbskull agency who is controlling milk prices. And here, Mr. President, you come along and put the nails on the farmers coffins. Where is your sense of justice? Are you only listening to Israeli lobbyists? Aren’t you aware of what is happening to our own farmers? Israel is not our responsibility!
What hypocrites. Cows would be slaughtered anyway by the milk industry after 4 - 5 years. Milk is stealing from a baby cow and then killing the mother. The farmers who pretended it was very hard for them to sell their cows, are super hypocrites.. as if they hadn't sold cows to be killed ALL the time in the past after the cow stopped producing enough milk. Stop drinking milk. It's BAD for us, both AMerican AND from Israel, and it's a theft and an abuse of million of animals...
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