WHAT CAN YOU DO!
Call or fax letters to your Congressman and Senators. E-mails are likely to be overlooked. The Capital Hill Switchboard is (202) 225-3121 for the House of Representatives and (202) 224-3121 for the Senate. Congress is on recess through September 7, 2009, and should be home in their district. Attend meetings and forums and ask them questions based on these issues. Write letters to the editor to articles that distort the issues around dairy pricing. Tell your story as you know it best.
1. Stop complaining to your milk truck driver, feed salesman, dairy route salesman and anyone else who pulls into your farmyard. Start directing your ire to the misinformed and apathetic politicians in Washington, DC, who are in a position to change dairy policy, and don’t be afraid to tell your politicians what you really think.
2. When you call your Congressman and Senators, ask to speak with a staffer who deals with dairy issues. You may be asked what organization you are representing. Don’t be afraid to tell them that you are just a constituent. Remember, politicians are elected by individuals, not organizations. You may very well speak with a staffer who tries to marginalize and confuse you. Keep in mind that you may very well know more about dairy issues than he/she does and you certainly understand the effects of low milk prices on you and your community better than the staffer does.
3. Write to you Congressman and Senators and tell them that the current milk pricing system is BROKEN!
4. Let them know how urgent it is for them to take action and that you are tired of their excuses.
5. Pricing volatility is hurting not just farmers but numerous businesses that depend on farmers.
6. All infrastructures of rural dairy communities are being put at risk by a handful of speculative traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) who trade in secret with no accountability.
7. Tell your Congressman and Senators you don’t want your dairy products coming from or made with inferior ingredients from countries whose food safety standards are lower than ours or non-existent.
8. Tell your Congressman and Senators that emergency measures need to be taken NOW such as: an Emergency Floor Price of $18.00 per cwt on all manufactured milk, or at the very least, passage of the Family Dairy Preservation Act of 2009 (s.1330)which would temporarily double the Milk Income Loss Contract payments from 45% to 90%, to ensure that a sufficient supply of wholesome, nutritious, domestic dairy products remains available to the American people.
9. Farmers need cost of production coupled with a supply management system that will prevent another devastating price collapse.
10. Ask your state and local officials to put pressure on their federal officials to stop ignoring and making excuses for the farm crisis and start working together to solve the problem.
11. Put pressure on your dairy cooperatives to set a fair milk price.
12. Urge your feed supplier, equipment dealer and any other agri-business person that you deal with to get involved.
(Source: Gerald and Tina Carlin, dairy farmers, Meshoppen, PA (570) 833-4592)
THIS IS JUST A SAMPLE LETTER. YOU MAY CHANGE THE WORDING IF NECESSARY.
Senator/Representative
Address
City, State Zip
Date
Dear Senator/Representative,
My name is __________. I am a dairy farmer from __________. I, like tens of thousands of dairy farmers across the United States, am reeling from disastrous and unjustifiably low milk prices, which are now equal to or less than milk prices 30 years ago before inflation is figured in, while the cost of producing milk is near an all-time high. We can not even come close to paying all of our bills. This means that the businesses that serve us and rely on us, and we on them, are falling into a perilous situation as accounts receivable soar.
The milk pricing system is broken. A handful of traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), trading only a small portion of US milk supply, essentially set farm milk prices across the country. The Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) payments will be totally inadequate. The feed adjuster is virtually meaningless. Imported dairy products continue to flow into our country, worsening our plight.
There must be something done on an Emergency short-term basis to avoid a mass exodus of dairy farmers in the very near future. Please support an Emergency Floor Price of $18.00 per hundredweight on all manufactured milk or at the very least support Senator Gillibrand’s Family Dairy Preservation Act of 2009 (s.1330) which would double the MILC payments from 45% to 90% retroactive to March 1, 2009 and ending November 30, 2009.
I/We are urging you to also support long-term legislation that would base farm milk prices on the average total economic cost of producing milk. There must also be a supply management program in place to insure that these volatile and harmful price swings do not reoccur. Senators Specter from Pennsylvania has introduced legislation, The Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009 (formerly s.889 now s.1645), that addresses these issues. S1645 would provide fair payment to farmers from the marketplace, not from the taxpayer.
I/We are counting on you. To ignore this critical issue is to endanger our food supply and help force honest, hardworking dairy farmers out of business.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
*(Letter prepared by Gerald and Tina Carlin, dairy farmers, Meshoppen, PA (570) 833-4592)