Richard and Carol Conklin wrote:
> And Ian, where do those 'milk solids' go? Yes, they come right here, and
> allow our processors to pay Farmers an absolute minimum price. What if you
> and I were able to 'organise' our farmers and define our price? I know that
> here in the USA, our first step would be to deny your powder imports. In NZ,
> you could focus on the nutritional value of high component milk, and just
> serve your own country. What do you think?
> Dick Conklin
Somebody has to add a bit of quality product to the US market 8>)
Seriously Dick, I do not believe that if there were no imports of NZ
product, that your prices would change. If we looked back to the 70's
and 80's, the butter mountains that the US and EU held were held up as
what was controlling our price here in NZ. When they go prices would
improve we were told. They were dumped onto the international markets
and guess what. No improvement has appeared decades later. Some other
excuse is shown. Personally I believe the bottom line is that the
farmer, no matter where he farms, will ever get the price he deserves
simply for the fact that low food prices keep the greater population
happy. Whats the old saying "the way to a mans heart is through his
stomach".
If we did not allow dairy into US then should not that then be applied
to all trade from country to country in all things, not just
agriculture. Places like the US and NZ would not have been discovered by
"civilized" man at all. The herringbone shed or rotary would remain in
the antipodes (Australia and NZ) Cars tractors in the Northern hemisphere.
Returning to dairy (before Roy shoots me off the list) the CEO of
Fonterra stated recently that they expect that within 15 years they will
be sourcing more milk from outside of NZ, to meet their developing
markets, then NZ can produce. Yes some of that will be coming from the US.
It is one of my bug bears with Fonterra getting into the organic
industry, here in NZ. My personal basic philosophies of organics is that
there should be no need for premiums for pasture, produced products as
it costs me no more to produce. And more importantly it should be used
to supply those that need it the most, at a price they can afford,
before it goes to the high end markets. Unfortunately this does not happen.
As farmers we spend too much time sniping at each other instead of
helping each other. It is time we all began helping each other.
In a dream time would it not be great to belong to one gigantic dairy
farmers co-op where we controlled fair prices. But alas human nature
prevails.
regards
Ian Buckingham
New Zealand
