The local hardware store closes and you have a Super Walmart. The whole milk bears USDA organic certification. “Consolidation seems to be the name of the game. 365 by Whole Foods Market is one of the top organic foods brands, and their grade A organic whole milk is high quality. Organic dairy farms decreased by 8 between 20. “Having 10 farms milking 50 cows is hugely better for local economies than one 500-cow farm,” he said. The number of dairy farms in Vermont has decreased by 37 in the past 10 years and by 69 in the past 24 years, according to a 2021 report from the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. And without matching increases in the pay price for milk, advocates, officials and farmers themselves are worried they might leave the industry altogether. The northeast organic producer groups used their tremendous support from consumers, advocacy organizations, and farmers to bring pressure to bear on Danone to honor their responsibilities to their organic dairy farmers and the northeast community. Mehuren said that he understood the trends in the dairy industry but that he didn’t think they were an improvement. Costs are way up for fuel, feed and fertilizer. “This is about 14 family farms in Maine and 89 family farms across the Northeast, and they are all, every single one of them, important.”Īt Faithful Venture Farm, while cleaning out the parlor between milkings, Mr. “I really want to emphasize that this isn’t about one farm or my family’s farm,” she said. That farm, now run by her brother, is among those being dropped by Horizon. Beal understands organic dairy farms because she grew up on one. Beal asked Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, about this when she and her counterparts in other Northeast states met with him twice, via video, to discuss Horizon’s canceling the contracts. “I feel if the playing field were level, our farmers could certainly hold their own.” “It creates an unlevel playing field for our farmers,” Ms. Now those farms are facing trouble because there is a lack of milk processors in the region and a glut of milk from huge organic dairies in Western states. But the future for small dairy farmers in the Northeast still appears difficult.įor the past 20 years, organic milk offered a lifeline for small farms in the Northeast, allowing them to stay afloat while milking 100 cows or fewer. In December, Horizon gave all of the affected farmers a reprieve, extending their contracts until February 2023 and paying a bit more for the milk. (AP) - The company that announced this summer that it would stop buying milk from 89 organic dairy farms in the Northeast next August is offering to extend. Horizon delivered the same letter to 88 other organic dairy farms from Maine to New York. It said it was terminating his contract in a year. Mehuren got a certified letter from Horizon Organic, which had been buying his milk for 16 years. Cows ramble among weathered barns perched on a hill surrounded by small pastures and woodlots.īut things have been rough on the farm since August. SEARSMONT, Maine - Glendon Mehuren II’s Faithful Venture Farm, 35 miles east of the state capital of Augusta, looks as tranquil as the farms pictured on cartons of organic milk.
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