While researching Mexican milk that does not require refrigeration prior to opening (hopefully more to come), I stumbled upon a March 17, 2007 article by Stan Freeman of The Republican about local dairy farmer Ted F. White from Hawley, Massachusetts.Ted F. White doesn't have cable, the Internet or a car. The reason, he says, is that he's a Massachusetts dairy farmer.
The seventh generation of his family to milk cows, the Hawley dairyman said the price he is paid for his milk is so low and his operating costs, including for fuel, feed and fertilizer, are so high, that he and other dairy farmers in the state can no longer make a living.
"The existence of the remaining dairy farms in Massachusetts is in question," he told a panel of state agriculture officials yesterday during an emergency hearing held by the state Department of Agricultural Resources at the University of Massachusetts Campus Center.
"We live just as frugally as we possibly can. But even with doing all that, I can't pay my bills," said White, who borrowed a car to get to the hearing.
Faced with what they say are unprecedented financial losses, the state's dairy farmers petitioned the Department of Agricultural Resources to determine if emergency action should be taken to aid their industry. Acting Agriculture Commissioner Scott J. Soares said that he will take comments on the issue until March 29 and then make a decision, which can include raising the minimum price paid Massachusetts farmers for their milk, a price that is set by the federal government monthly.
Follow up: A March 25, 2007 editorial in The Republican, State's dairy farmers the cream of the crop provided recent activity by White and other local dairy farmers and also cited that in 1982 there were 812 dairy farms in Massachusetts. Today there are only 187.
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