Time to save family farms is running short

Fewer than 2,000 factory farms produce over half of our nation’s milk.

What most of us know about dairy farming comes from milk carton labels and happy cow TV ads. Contented cows grazing lush pastures. Golden-haired farm kids. Quaint red barns. Such is the idyllic theme park that brings us cheese for pizzas, ice cream for birthday parties, and wholesome beverages for school lunches.

In the real world, fewer than 2,000 factory farms produce over half of our nation’s milk. As smaller, family-sized dairies disappear, rural communities lose economic support. Hired labor replaces family labor. Fierce debates flare up over the environmental costs of hosting giant dairy farms. Concentrating so many animals on so few sites raises issues, all troubling, for both food security and animal welfare.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Something like 100,000 familysized dairy farms could just as well take care of all our dairy needs. Those farms would provide the livelihood for 100,000 hardworking, rural families. Those family businesses would, in turn, support rural economies throughout America.

The benefits would not stop there. Because family-sized dairy farms also grow feed for their cows, manure is a valuable source of fertilizer instead of a pollution problem. With fewer cows in any one place, our food supply would be less vulnerable to disruptions from diseases, extreme weather events, and terror attacks. Cows would be well treated by families who know each animal individually, often by name.

Despite these advantages, we are on track to see virtually our entire milk supply coming from mega dairies within the next 10 years. Change is still possible, but the window is closing rapidly. What can we do?

For starters, we must recognize that market forces, acting alone, will not rescue family farming. Granted, consumers prefer milk from smaller farms — hence the relentless advertising campaigns featuring the very farms being pushed out of business. Nonetheless, the bait and switch toward milk from factory farms continues to work well. Consumers cannot “vote with their dollars” because there is no way to tell where the milk used to make dairy products comes from. Some trucks pick up milk from smaller farms, others from big box dairies. Both trucks deliver to the same processing plant where the milk gets mixed together and its identity is lost.

We must also accept that we can’t have our cheesecake and eat it too. “We can have both” won’t cut it when it comes to stopping the process by which factory farms replace family farms. It’s less convenient, not to mention more expensive, to source milk from several smaller farms when a single mega dairy can do the same job.

Because of this, no amount of cost-cutting efficiency will protect the family farmer’s market in what is, in effect, a vicious game of musical chairs. When a factory farm comes in, lots of smaller farmers must go out of business to make market space for the newcomer. For example, 20,000 new cows can make up one factory farm or 200 family-sized farms, but not both. The dairy market doesn’t magically expand to accommodate growth in cow numbers.

We have already entrusted our meat supply to a handful of giant, sometimes foreignowned, corporations. Unless we do more in the way of public policy, dairy will go down that same path. The policies that will save family dairy farming might use direct regulation of farm size, or they might involve sophisticated pricing methods to favor family farms. Either way, there is a more important step we must take now. The American public must stand up for family dairy farming and demand that new policies be evaluated and quickly implemented.

The American public must stand up for family dairy farming and demand that new policies be evaluated and implemented.