Fri. July 17, 2009
By STEVE CAHALAN
scahalan@lacrossetribune.com
WEST SALEM — Organic dairy farmers Thursday urged Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to crack down on large “factory” farms they claim bend or break federal organic rules and pose unfair competition.
Vilsack, who attended the second half of the farmers’ hourlong rally at the La Crosse Interstate Fair, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture will enforce organic rules.
About 150 people attended the rally, which took place before a forum featuring Vilsack and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood?.
One of the rally organizers, Cornucopia Institute co-founder Mark Kastel of La Farge, estimated about 20 huge dairy operations are producing 30 percent to 40 percent of all “‘quote’ organic milk” in the nation. “That is putting our farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, ethical farmers, at a competitive disadvantage,” he said.
In an interview before the rally, Kastel said a “common denominator” in giant dairies breaking organic rules is failure to provide the required amount of grazing for cows that produce organic milk.
“Our beef is not with the Obama administration,” he said. “They have done all the right things, said all the right things, made some excellent appointments” to the Department of Agriculture. “What they inherited was an abomination. The Bush administration sat by and allowed large industrial dairies, factory farms, to game the system.”
Both conventional milk and organic milk prices have fallen sharply in recent months.
“It’s a crisis time,” organic dairy farmer Bruce Drinkman of Glenwood City, Wis., told Vilsack and others at the rally. While big processors talk about record profits, he said, “what do we have to show for it?”
Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, told the audience he understands their concerns and emotions. He recalled as a lawyer representing many farmers who struggled to hang on to their land during the farm crisis of the mid-1980s.
The USDA is beginning to take steps to respond and react to the concerns expressed by the organic dairy farmers, Vilsack said. “We are making changes in the folks who will be in charge of the organic program at USDA, so that it accurately reflects the values and concerns and hopes and aspirations that all organic farmers have in this country,” he said.
“We are focusing on rules that will level the playing field so that small and medium-sized producers have a fair shot,” Vilsack said.
