Strawberry Research
Organic Field Days
Social Justice in Ag
Easy-Care Flowers
5
7
10
13 TM
Volume 26 | Number 3
Organic dairy, like conventional, facing tough times
2018 not year for big improvements in Farm Bill
By Brittany Olson
By Nick Levendofsky
The stark difference between the 2014 Farm Bill and the 2018 Farm Bill is that the former was written during much better economic times for agriculture and rural America. Commodity prices were higher, and farmers were spending money because they were making money. That is not the case, now, as Congress writes and works on the 2018 legislation. Wisconsin is currently losing 1.5 dairies a day – 390 in 2016 and 500 in 2017. Historically low commodity prices and high input costs mixed with uncertainty in trade, plus extreme weather variability have pushed the issue to crisis mode. It’s time for a reality check: 2018 will not be the year for a “revolutionary” Farm Bill. As much as we would like to see significant changes, it’s just not going to happen in this Congress and in this current economic climate. This will be a status quo Farm Bill. Expect modest changes designed to improve the current Farm Bill and offer language that provides producers consistency and transparency, along with better on-time payment performance. Many of the members of Congress who voted for the 2014 Farm Bill are no longer in office because they either voluntarily retired or were “retired” by voters in 2016. The Senate Agriculture Committee has 11 Republicans To Farm Bill on page 14
With another year of depressed farmgate milk prices looming on the horizon, and several dozen dairy farmers having their worlds turned upside down when told they no longer had a buyer for their milk, many dairy farmers have felt their burning desire for change turn into a raging fire. While organic dairy farmers typically enjoy a much higher pay price compared to their conventional counterparts, they, too, have seen their pay prices being whittled down over the past 18 to 24 months. Darin Von Ruden, an organic dairy farmer from Westby, Wis., MOSES board member and president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, offered Dairy farmers face an uncertain future with retail sales down, some insights into the situation on the contract cuts, and an industry-wide surplus of fluid milk. organic side. Photo by Brittany Olson “Up until about two years ago, organic prices have been stable,” Von Ruden said. “But, we’re now seeing more of corpo- that organic and conventional are basically headed rate America creeping into the pricing structure down the same road. Retail sales of organic milk with large operations like Aurora Organic Dairy dropped more than 2.5% in the last year while in Colorado. Dean Foods is also becoming a big sales of plant-based milk options rose nearly 3%, player in organic, but they prefer to buy from a few leaving the organic dairy sector trying to manage larger farms instead of smaller to mid-sized family oversupply. Von Ruden took a staggering $7/cwt farms, and the farmer pay price is being eroded. pay cut at the beginning of 2018. There are also larger farms coming into organic “Five years ago, you still had processors lookthat may not follow standards to a T the way a ing to take on new farmers. Now, the marketing smaller farm would, either.” structure is full and processors aren’t looking for While pay prices are vastly different even with new farmers. In past years, organic processors downward pressure on markets, Von Ruden said To Dairy on page 6
Growing for wholesale accounts creates efficiencies for small-scale vegetable farm
Picked up this newspaper at an event?
By Dana Jokela
Subscribe now — it’s free! mosesorganic.org/sign-up Time to renew?
Please renew your free subscription before it expires!
Check the date in the address box below. Renew online or call 715-778-5775.
PO Box 339, Spring Valley, WI 54767
May | June 2018
Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service
When starting a vegetable farm, farmers first need to consider where they intend to sell their produce. Most new farmers set their sights on direct-to-consumer markets—such as community supported agriculture (CSA) programs and farmers markets—as their primary sales outlets. There are plenty of good reasons to start with direct markets, rather than wholesale accounts such as restaurants, grocery stores, and distributors. Many new farmers are attracted to direct markets because the farmer usually gets a better price for the product, keeping the whole “food dollar” rather than splitting the price with at least one intermediary, such as a retail store. Additionally, direct markets are often more accessible to new farmers who may lack the credibility desired by a wholesale buyer. Farmers markets provide an ideal outlet to build this reputation, since customers only buy produce when it has been successfully grown and brought to market. Lastly, direct markets are better suited to the small scale typical of new farms. Ariel Pressman, owner of Seed to Seed Farm, started out just like that. In 2012, while working part-time at Foxtail Farm in Osceola, Wis., he started his own farm and sold the produce at a farmers market. The next year, he moved his operation to Balsam Lake, Wis., where he started a CSA, attended farmers markets, and sold to restaurants. But after two years running a CSA, he noticed two things: First, he was having a hard time managing 50 crops, and second,
Ariel Pressman has found it’s most efficient for his farm to grow larger quantities of vegetables for wholesale accounts. Photo submitted
he was noticing some inefficiencies from mixing the high-diversity nature of CSA and market farming with the high-volume/low-price reality of wholesale production. To Wholesale Market on page 8