Enough With the Hate
Social media is a terrible place to be. It started out with good intentions, I’m sure, but it’s become such a cesspool of inconsiderate, filterless vitriol that it truly takes my breath away. This is especially true in the dairy industry. Some of the things that come out from behind anonymous keyboards makes me wonder if I was the only one with a mother who would not stand for unkind, un-attributed, and unworthy talk.
What brings this little rant about you ask? The dairy industry has been in a downturn since 2014, which incidentally, was the best year ever for agriculture as a whole, and dairy in particular. A lot of people have compared this latest downturn with the farm crisis of the 1980s, but they are incorrect.
Yes, milk prices are low, and many dairy producers (of ALL sizes) are selling out, but interest rates aren’t 23 percent, and cows aren’t being taken out of production in record numbers. All the usual dairy news outlets are projecting a more positive 2019, and an even better 2020.
When I have the nerve (or the idiocy) to look at the comments sections, all I see is hate. And you know what’s especially disturbing? It comes, nearly unequivocally, from small midwestern and northeastern dairymen. I see comments like, “If we get rid of illegal immigrants, and honest farmers actually have a chance, maybe this will be true”. “If those mega-dairies actually had to milk all their own cows, they’d be real dairymen, and not flooding the market with low-quality, illegal-labor-harvested milk.”“Anyone who milks more cows than they can name is to fault. They’re corporate-owned, government-controlled, and have no care in the world for anyone trying to make it the old way.”
Enough is e-freaking-nough. Seriously? People wonder why the public doesn’t quite trust us, and it’s because we don’t trust each other. You know what a fascinating thing in our industry is? As producers, we’re not actually competing against ourselves. You do what’s best for you and your operation, and your neighbor does what’s best for his. But, no matter what you do, your pay price will be the same as your neighbor’s (assuming you ship to the same co-op, which is fairly common if you dairy in the same geographic area.)
SO WHY are you so hate-filled for each other? Why are you so willing to demonize anyone and anything that is even slightly different from how you do it on your farm? You’ll notice I switched from “we” to “you”. It’s because that I don’t engage in this kind of behavior. It’s because it’s incredibly disheartening and discouraging to see this kind of interaction from people who I hoped I could count on to promote and connect our industry - all of it - to the larger world.
You see, I’m from one of those “mega-dairies”. But I’m also from one of those tiny ones. My parents started out in western Connecticut with 70 cows in the early 1980s. They were the only labor force. They did know every cow by sight and name. They survived the hell of the farm crisis of that decade, raised three kids while doing it, and realized that if they wanted to stay in the dairy business, and if my siblings and I had even a passing interest in returning to the family farm, they had to change what they were doing. So they milked more cows. And then they moved those more cows to western Utah. And then they milked more cows. And then my brothers came home, and we expanded again. And along the way, some of the most instrumental people who have been, are, and will continue to be a huge part of our success have been folks from other countries. I know some of you have already stopped reading by now.
If you’ve gotten this far, hear me out. Those folks came from bad places, looking for a better life. We don’t know the specifics of how they got here. By law, we’re not allowed to ask. Funny thing though, we are held liable if someone turns out to be in the country illegally and is employed by us. Bit of a double-edged sword, no? And as a small aside, that seems incomprehensible to many people, but I swear to you it’s the God’s-honest truth: WHITE AMERICANS DON’T WANT TO MILK COWS. It’s hard work, doesn’t pay the very best, and honestly, people are just lazy. So, we have to find other solutions, because the dang cows gotta get milked!
We employ more than 80 people. Our employee Christmas party had more than 250 people attend this year, because spouses, kids, and grandparents were invited too. Forget the economic benefit of employing that many people in a rural county, think of the community benefit and strength that has been built by two people who knew that different was not necessarily bad. That big wasn’t necessarily bad. Two people who knew that the dairy industry, like every other industry out there, is changing with the times, and if you want to still be a dairyman, continue your family legacy, or whatever it is you’re striving for, you must change too. It’s not necessarily expansion to the degree that we did. It’s diversifying.
Do you just want to milk 50 cows? AWESOME! But I’d bet you need to something else, like make cheese. Is urban encroachment a serious problem for your farm? Get the courage to move, even if it’s just 10 miles further out into the country. Think your great-grandparents would be epically pissed if you left the ancestral lands? Would they rather you fight with folks who don’t want you there, or continue the legacy that they started by milking cows? Look, we’re a big farm. It’s true. But words like mega-dairy and factory farm don’t only hurt, they are patently untrue. The connotations of those words hit many consumers in their hearts. They do in mine too. The difference is I know they’re not true. Our consumers don’t. Do you want them to continue to buy dairy products, or just the ones that your milk make? I just want people to buy dairy. Period. I don’t care if it’s from small or large, conventional or organic, east or west. And as for me and my house, we will always champion and spread the love for all dairies, all sizes, all kinds of production and practices. As long as they’re managing their cows with care and good welfare practices, as long as they strive for quality, and dare I hope? As long as we care about others in our small dairy community as much as we care about ourselves.
Give me and my family a chance. Let's actually talk. Stop slinging the mud ok? We've got more than enough from the weather and all the other issues going on in the world. Could we try, just once more, to be friends? To come together and be better? Let me know.
While I welcome and enjoy lively discussion, disrespect in any form will not be tolerated on this post. Keep it classy folks!