TheVoiceOfJoyce In the last 20 years, only 2 were profitable for the small dairy farmer. America supports large exporters and they control the dairy industry with 139% more cows. Small farmers are forced to sell to big conglomerates or get out of business. Our tax structure promotes big businesses and exporters. It’s time to stop Big Farms tax subsidies as well and tax them for their profits. Why should Americans pay more for milk, incur pollution when we have the Political power to save our economy and reduce greenhouse gasses in Agriculture, too? The monopolies are killing the rest of us. They’re not just taking our livelihoods, they’re also the cause of our pollution and our deteriorating health and wealth. Enough, we can demand change to make our lives livable and increase our lifespans. Politics affects US!

Posted on by jaslvr

www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/31/us-dairy-policies-hurt-small-farms-monopolies-get-rich

In the past 20 years, US dairy exports rose eightfold – more than almost any other commodity – which has coincided with rapid consolidation across the industry, according to the FWW report.

The US Dairy Export Council (USDEC) claims booming exports have helped farms of all sizes, but two-thirds of family-sized commercial dairies were lost between about 1997 to 2017 as factory farms, exporters and a handful of powerful cooperatives came to dominate dairy. Trade association executives are making huge salaries as ordinary farms go under.

Dairy monopolies are also bad news for the climate. Even though the number of cows remains stable, planet-warming methane emissions from dairy manure have more than doubled since 1990, thanks to the way factory farms manage waste, the FWW report found.

It warns of a vicious circle in which economic hardship caused by low and volatile milk prices is driving family-scale farmers to “get big or get out”. In other words, the only way for many ordinary farms to survive is to expand their herds and factory farm which increase greenhouse gas emissions and endanger air and water quality – or sell-up to mega-dairies that do the same.

The average US dairy farm managed to turn a profit just twice since 2000

Production value minus expenses for milk per hundredweight (100lbs) from 1980 to 2021

$15

$10

Two profitable years,

2007 and 2014

$5

$0

–$5

–$10

1980

1990

2000

2010

2020

Guardian graphic. Source: USDA

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