Vermont lawmakers seek federal assistance

By Nicole Gaudiano, Free Press Washington Writer

WASHINGTON — Responding to an economic crisis in the dairy industry, Vermont’s congressional delegation spent Wednesday working on ways to help struggling farmers stay afloat.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders were among senators who met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to press for a short-term increase in the price the federal government pays for milk and dairy products in the marketplace.

Leahy said in a statement after the meeting, “We have an ally in Secretary Vilsack.”

“There are obstacles to getting this done, but this was a strategy meeting, not just a discussion,” he said.

Sanders said every possible approach to address the crisis should be examined, including an increase in the dairy support price. Continuing to lose farms “will be a disaster not only for the agricultural community but for the economy of the state and all of our people,” he said.

In the House, Rep. Peter Welch and other dairy state lawmakers announced the resurrection of the Congressional Dairy Caucus. More than 50 House members have joined the bipartisan caucus, which disbanded after passage of the Farm Bill last year. Since then, milk prices have declined and production costs have risen, crippling the industry.

“The basic question this Congress has to address is very simple: If we bailed out the bankers because they’re too big to fail, are we going to ignore the farmers because they’re too small to matter?” said the Vermont Democrat, a co-chairman of the caucus. “This dairy caucus believes the answer to that is no. We’re united in our commitment to help those farmers be successful.”

The caucus will press as a group for relief measures, including an emergency increase in subsidies for farmers and government purchase of excess dairy products, said Rep. Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat.

Vermont has lost more than 250 dairy farms in the past five years, leaving just more than 1,000 still in business.

“We’ve been hit hard,” said Onan Whitcomb, a co-owner of the North Williston Cattle Co. in Williston. “We are burning up some equity in our business to stay afloat, but I don’t think that’s any different than any other farm.

“I’m glad they are talking to each other,” Whitcomb said of the members of Congress from dairy states. But he is not expecting a quick solution.

Whitcomb, who milks about 280 cows, is pessimistic any government plan will be crafted to provide immediate help to struggling dairy farmers. But, he said, he is more hopeful for long-term reform of the system.

Revising the dairy system, he said, “has to be done nationally, not state-by-state or regionally.”

“I just don’t think it will work that way,” Whitcomb said of a plan without the backing of the federal government and implemented throughout the country.

“Milk is too fluid. Once it’s in that tractor trailer, it can move anywhere,” he said, eliminating the power of state or regional pricing pacts.

Some have talked about “supply management,” reducing the amount of milk produced by farmers to increase prices. But he’s not in favor of that approach. “I don’t think it’s the American way,” he said.

During a morning news conference, Welch acknowledged that overproduction has contributed to the drop in milk prices. He also acknowledged, in response to questions, “some relationship” between overproduction and government policy and payments.

But he said the “emergency situation” was created by the global economic recession and the collapse of exports to China, where tainted milk products for children created a scare last year.

“The demand dropped precipitously,” he said.

Short-term relief could come in the form of increased Milk Income Loss Contract payments, a Department of Agriculture program that provides monthly payments to milk producers when prices drop below a certain level, he said. Such a boost would cost an estimated $211 million for the remainder of this calendar year, he said.

Long-term, Welch said, Congress also should change what some consider an outdated system for pricing milk.

“There’s got to be some governmental policy that provides a certain amount of stability,” he said. “The pricing system that we have now is simply not working.”

Free Press Staff Writer Dan McLean contributed to this report.