None truly have the time to spare away from the farm during this busy field work season. They have taken time away from their chores to speak with the media, attend meetings and share the personal stories of how current policies and outdated pricing are hurting their farms. Many of these farmers have made sacrifices this year in their quest for change in a dairy industry. Hundreds of farmers of all different backgrounds have come together through efforts like Dairy Together, a movement that is seeking to rebuild a viable dairy economy for family farmers and rural communities. Here in Wisconsin, we’ve seen dairy farmers banding together to ask for change. How do we take the gas pedal off of overproduction and rebuild an agricultural industry where all the parts of the machine are making balanced profits, without over-reliance on taxpayer subsidies? We need to have members of Congress crafting good farm policy, rather than gifts to special interests.

We should be wise about what programs and policies actually benefit farmers, and refuse to be used as a sympathetic face for otherwise-questionable public policy. We buy into a mentality that 'we're all in this together.' Sometimes that’s true, but sometimes not. There is also a tendency for farmers to see their interests as synonymous with those of their bankers, supply co-ops, crop consultants, dairy processors, etc. We too often settle for (and lobby for) any crumb of helpful policy that comes our way, even if tacked onto a big cake that goes elsewhere. This is one of the ways agribusiness companies benefit from farmers being in a continual state of desperation. There are two reasons for this: first, if you are drowning and need a life preserver, are you really going to refuse one that is thrown to you? No! You are going to grab the darn life preserver that's thrown to you. What makes this confusing is that 'farm' groups are often out front pushing these policies. The real beneficiaries of federal farm subsidies are agribusinesses, because the subsidies fuel the central cog in their profit machine that would have otherwise run out of gas a long time ago. The farmers I know would rather receive fair prices for their products at the farm gate, rather than having to live with the stress of volatile markets and the unknowns of whether emergency relief and insurance will kick in. Akin to the federal crop insurance program, the protection would offer coverage levels from 70 to 95 percent of revenue.Īlthough some very large players collect enormous sums in subsidies and crop insurance, for average farmers subsidies are just a mechanism for keeping one's head above water and staying one step ahead of ever-rising input prices and stagnant commodity prices. We’re seeing this yet again, as the USDA’s Risk Management Agency, in partnership with the American Farm Bureau, recently unveiled a new insurance plan for dairy farmers facing unexpected declines in quarterly milk sales.

Wheel and cog