graze-l January 2006: [SPAM] - Re: [SPAM] - Re: [SPAM]
- Re: [Graze-l] Re:Risk vs reward - Email found in subject - Email found in
subject - Email found in subject
When farmers have tried to concentrate power, it has not worked all that
well. At least not in the dairy industry. Compare the prices that dairy
farmers receive in the dairy belt with areas that have few or sometimes
only one buyer (DFA). Having several or a dozen buyers changes the
dynamic and does seem to reward farmers with higher prices. I admit that
there are other factors such as distance from markets and local cost of
production issues which impact supply and demand and therefore impacts
prices in a given region. But having a number of buyers competing for
your milk does make a difference.
Ironically, many farmers and their organizations in our area claim that
they are disadvantaged by the milk marking system, but if you look at
the actual pay prices you find that they are misrepresenting the overall
picture. A kind of mythology developed over the years with the famous
claim that the further you are from Eau Claire, WI, the higher the pay
price. Even though, untrue, many farmers still believe it.
All farmers are ALWAYS competitors at one level. But for a given area,
you do need a critical mass in order to have a good infrastructure. With
the increasing ability to transport milk long distances, the effect of
say a large dairy in California can be significant. Also, in areas such
as ours that primarily converts milk to cheese, the effects are far
reaching.
Even though Capper-Volstad is not really used, I can assure you that if
it was used very much, there would be a huge amount of pressure to
repeal the law as an illegal form of collusion. It is true that farmers
have way more political power than their numbers would suggest. I have
heard that it is about 4 or 5 times our numbers:) And I don't doubt it.
No other industry gets the kind of subsidies that we do.
Sincerely,
Rick W.
suzie & tom mason wrote:
> A sense of community ? Do you mean that a 50 cow farmer in Wisconsin
> belongs to the same community as a 10000 cow farmer in California ? I
> dont think so. What a sense of community does is generate attitudes
> that are local and parochial. Those attitudes are what prevent co-ops
> getting the mass they need to influence a market through commercial
> power. You are extremely fortunate to have Capper-Volstad and
> equally stupid not to use that advantage. Instead of taking control
> of your own future you seem happy to use the vagaries of your
> political system which gives power in the senate to rural America way
> out of proportion to its population base.
>
> Agricultural co-ops are hindered Internationally by the doctrine that
> comes out of the ICA, an organisation dominated by people who see
> co-operatives as a means to achieve social and political ideals
> whereas farmers need a co-op that delivers financial performance.
> Don't blame a lack of leadership in your co-ops, you get the leaders
> you deserve, the problem is the outdated attitudes of the members.
>
> Tom Mason
> Canterbury
> NZ
>
>
>
