In scenes reminiscent of the Great Depression, dairy farmers across
the US have been ordered to dump perfectly good milk into their fields
and lagoons where it will seep into the earth. The inability of the
capitalist system to scientifically plan and coordinate production has
left producers no choice but to dump millions of gallons of milk, with
no end in sight.
Images of farmers dumping their milk has provoked outrage among
workers, as grocery stores across the country are still limiting
purchases of essential dairy products. While being told to shelter in
place, millions of people are obliged to make return trips to the
grocery store in order to purchase perishables such as milk, putting
their families and essential workers at risk.
This comes at a time of mass layoffs, with millions of families being thrown into food insecurity and compelled to rely on
food banks for sustenance. In an interview with the
GuardianJerry
Brown, media spokesman for St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, a coalition
of 700 food banks, reflected on the unprecedented demand for their
services in the US, “The 2008 recession doesn’t touch this. It’s a
different ballgame.”
The implementation of social distancing guidelines has collapsed
several traditional milk markets such as schools and restaurants. US
public schools were the number one consumer of liquid milk according to
Pam Jahnke, editor of the
Midwest Farm Report. Unable or
willing to make the societally beneficial investments to freeze and
store the milk for later use or distribution, the market demands it be
discarded in order to keep prices artificially inflated.
The capitalist system has no answer for the crisis of
“overproduction.” In her editorial Jahnke advised readers who wanted to
help farmers to “Pray that COVID-19 dissipates. Pray that life begins to
return to somewhat normal patterns. Pray that this milk dumping
situation is just a temporary story. Pray for all the farm families that
are trying to make their way through this.”
While the almighty hasn’t yet intervened, travel restrictions and
tariffs have crippled supply chains and slowed trade, especially between
China and the US. Before the restrictions were implemented, China was
the number one importer of dairy products in the world. Even though this
pandemic was foreseen for months, food and dairy processors took no
steps to prepare for possible disruptions.
Instead of preparing their facilities to switch from wholesale to
retail production by ordering the necessary equipment and packaging
materials, processors have been scrambling to shift workers from
wholesale plants towards retail plants, laying off workers in the
process.
Increased retail demand has resulted in shipping delays. Long-haul
truck drivers who transport the bulk of consumer goods in the US have
either been unable to pick them up or forced to wait hours for their
deliveries due to increased traffic congestion at the plants. Because of
this and a shortage of drivers, agriculture groups have been lobbying
states to increase truck weight limits on highways, increasing the
danger of accidents or rollovers.
Speaking in a radio interview with
Farm Report, Ryan Elbe, a
dairy farmer in West Bend, Wisconsin, confirmed that his family farm
had already dumped 250 million pounds of milk by April 1 and would
continue dumping for at least another week. Elbe told reporters he
expected his family would be compensated for their milk, however he did
not know by whom or when.
Elbe confirmed that his family received a phone call from the Dairy
Farmers Alliance (DFA) on March 31, instructing Golden E Dairy that due
to an “oversupply” of milk in the market they would have to begin the
dumping process. The DFA is a dairy cooperative in which concentrated
animal feeding operations, that is farms that have a minimum of 1,000
animal units as defined by the US Department of Agriculture, are
organized under the umbrella of the DFA.
Billed as “grassroots cooperatives,” farmers have no input or say in
how their milk is produced or where they can sell it. Instead the DFA
operates as a cartel in which “farmer-leaders” are elected and overseen
by a 49-member board of directors. The DFA has been the defendant in
several class action lawsuits brought by farmers alleging everything
from price-fixing to monopolization of the market.
In 2013 and 2014 the DFA settled two lawsuits out of court, while
admitting no fault. The settlements required the DFA to pay farmers $140
million in one case and $50 million in the other.
The DFA claims it serves more than 14,500 dairy farmer-members
representing 8,500 dairy farms in 48 states. It is unclear if all of its
farmers are going to dump their milk. However, Elbe was able to confirm
that every farmer-member in the co-op that he spoke to had received the
same call his father had. The same day, March 31, that the DFA ordered
its membership to begin dumping milk a Federal Bankruptcy court in
Kansas City, Kansas, where the DFA is headquartered, signaled its
approval for a DFA bid to buy out Dean Food Company assets for $433
million.
Dean Food had declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November in 2019.
Shortly thereafter DFA submitted several bids to purchase a majority of
the assets of the company, the largest dairy processor in the US. The
purchase would include the “assets and properties” related to 44 fluid
and frozen dairy facilities. For the bid to be approved it will need to
be signed off on by the US Department of Justice, as it would mean the
largest dairy cooperative in the US would also become the largest milk
processor in the country.
It is not just the US dairy industry that is facing a crisis of
overproduction, an absurd situation given the chronic hunger suffered by
millions in the United States and globally. This crying contradiction
is a product of the capitalist profit system, which subordinates any
consideration of human need to the drive for profit.
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