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A National Coalition,
Led by Dairy Farmers.
Spearheaded by the Wisconsin Farmers Union with support from groups across the United States, Dairy Together is educating farmers, eaters, and lawmakers about how growth management can create a viable dairy economy.
Dairy Together embraces a vision to preserve and grow a vibrant agricultural landscape in Wisconsin and across the country; one where many farms operate at different scales to ensure a stable supply of food, use a variety of conservation practices to create a healthy environment, and generate enough profit for farmers and workers to make a good living doing something they love.
We envision a future where the rural communities supported by these farms are some of the most desirable places to live.
The Origins of Dairy Together
Dairy farmers have been struggling through boom and bust price cycles for decades. The word “crisis” has become so familiar in farm country that it hardly registers alarm anymore.
A collapse in milk prices in 2015, coupled with the failure of both government and industry to keep farms afloat, spurred dairy farmers into action. Shortly after, Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) began connecting with dairy farmers and allies across the country to explore ways to reform dairy markets. It turned out, they weren’t the only ones. WFU joined together with a number of farmers and farm organizations that saw a need to curb overproduction and level the playing field to enhance the viability of family farm agriculture. And so, Dairy Together was born.
In 2019, Dairy Together held meetings from coast to coast to present a menu of policy options that would improve milk prices and keep family farms in business. We learned that the industry has done a really good job at convincing farmers that their value lies only in their productivity and that the only way to make money in dairy is to get bigger. We also learned that so many farmers were desperate for a different approach. While many expressed reservations about a Canadian-style quota system, farmers big and small, from California to Vermont, were interested in adopting a national program that keeps supply and demand in better balance.
Born out of the dairy crisis.
For many years, dairy news headlines have been dismal as a flood of milk on the market contributed to years of depressed and volatile milk prices that have eroded the quality of life for family dairy farmers across the country.
Over the last decade, the USDA recorded the loss of roughly 17,000 dairy farms, cutting the total number by nearly one third. Many of these farms have been driven out by government policies and industry practices that favor mass production of commodities over family farm viability.
Our Solution
The Dairy Revitalization Plan
Dairy Together calls on Congress to establish a mandatory program for managed growth, based on market demand and price stability. Dairy Together supports the Dairy Revitalization Plan, based on the study, “Analyses of Proposed Alternative Growth Management Programs for the US Dairy Industry,” conducted by Charles Nicholson and Mark Stephenson and funded by the University of Wisconsin Baldwin Wisconsin Idea program, the Grassland 2.0 project, the Wisconsin Cover Crops Research and Outreach Program, and Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) of the University of Wisconsin.