Posted on 06/01/2005 6:50:25 AM PDT by Radigan
In its 85 years of existence, Smith Brothers Dairy in Kent has survived all manner of misfortune and mistakes.
There was the Depression, when milk sales plummeted. There were cow-killing floods. There were modern times, when it appeared the old-fashioned idea of fresh milk delivered to the doorstep had died.
And there was the crackdown when society realized cow manure could be as toxic to fish as anything produced at a nuclear plant.
"None of that compares to this," says Alexis Smith Koester, 60, dairy president and granddaughter of the founder, Ben Smith. "This is the biggest threat we've ever faced."
She's talking about the federal government.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed new rules that could force Smith Brothers to either give up half its business or close up shop entirely, Koester says.
What are the feds trying to stop? They're trying to keep Smith Brothers Dairy from selling its milk for less.
And we call this a capitalist country.
The dairy, which is small enough that the president answered the phone when I called, is being punished for doing too much too well.
For 75 years, milk has been heavily regulated by price and marketing controls.
People who know more about it than I do say the system works well. It protects those who own only one part of the milk business — say, a farmer with cows but no milk-processing plant — from being gouged by big agribusinesses.
But Smith Brothers has always been exempt from these regulations because it is so independent. It does it all. It is one of only 11 dairies left in the Northwest that raise and milk the cows as well as pasteurize and bottle the milk.
Its business model is so antiquated that most dairies like it long since went under.
Smith Brothers survived by discovering that what was old is new again. Home delivery of milk is hot. Especially if people know who owns the cows so there's a guarantee no growth hormones were used.
Remarkably, Smith Brothers now delivers milk to 40,000 homes in and around Seattle, the most in its history. And it is so efficient it does so at the same or lower prices you get in many stores.
Yet the feds, backed by the biggest dairy processors in the West, want to force Smith Brothers and other do-it-yourself dairies to sell through the government-regulated system. They say this will help the small farmers who already sell milk to big processors.
But Smith Brothers, no milk monopoly with just 1 percent of the market, would have to pay subsidies to its competitors that exceed the dairy's yearly profit. Or it would have to break up its business, and no longer provide its unique cow-to-carton-to-doorstep service.
So what we have is the government, prodded by large corporations, saying it is helping small family farms by destroying one of our most successful small family farms.
Come to think of it, I guess that is American-style capitalism after all.
Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.
I am done with all this, If you blank heads continue to dis the small american farmer then starvation is instore unless you know how to survive, god bless and good luck, you will need it.
Jim, I am sorry but I got to go, I will be back later, right now I have better things to do than argue with dumb asses, please excuse me for a while.
Our Federal Government is criminal. These dairy farmers should arm themselves and tell the crooked and corrupt Federal government, 'You want to regulate us come and get us'.
A little something on farm subsidies:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/farmsubsidies.htm
In North Dakota, Farmers Wary of Cuts to Subsidies (Update 4/5/05)
4/4/05 Washington Post sob story on the plight of farmers in North Dakota in light of the Bush administrations timid 5% cut in the bloated farm subsidies. A few ideas for a more accurate headline:
'Corrupt Government reduces massive Citizen Swindle by 5%, Special Interest Complain'
'Thieving Farmer Groups demand more money to be Looted from Honest Citizens'
'Bloated and Desperate Farmer Groups bribe Congress to continue Stealing'
''Generous' Government might spend 5% less of the money ripped off your family to support a Special Interest Group'
'The US government, with a 'Conservative' 'Republican' President and 'Conservative' 'Republican' Majorities in both houses of Congress, will continue to imprison US citizens if they don't continue to pay 95% of Farm Subsidies'
'Criminal Congress continues to break the 8th Commandment: Thou Shall Not Steal'
'Apathetic Populace Complacent over Continuing Thievery, Seem to respect the Governments right to sell the fruits of their labor to the Highest Bidder'
'Looney Farmer Groups claim Citizens benefit from being Extorted'
'Government Mafia shakedown might be cut by 5%, Farmer Groups Complain to sympathetic Media'
'Constitutional Violation by Congress over Farm Subsidies Continues'
'Congressmen not Seen as Criminal, Reelected despite Continued Public Pillaging'
Besides a poor choice of Headline, this Post article does not accurately describe what is actually occurring or arrive at the proper conclusion - like this one from 'Causes of Poverty in Developing Nations':
For example, the governments of the United States and Europe will imprison their citizens if they do not pay the hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes that these governments then return to small, often wealthy, farming interest groups. These bloated subsidies allow farmers to price their goods below market price (although in reality they are actually above market price), thus preventing developing nations from exporting substantial foodstuffs to developed countries. These farmers then donate some of the money the government stole for them back to the politicians that orchestrated the theft.
This is, by any definition, a criminal act, if not legally (in this case the thieves are making the laws), certainly morally. However, individual farmers actually do have a right to be livid at the Federal Government. Why? Because other special interest groups are, in turn, robbing them of billions of dollars each year too! If all of these thefts were eliminated it is entirely possible that farmers would be better off even without 100% of the subsidies that their political groups have traditionally extorted from their fellow citizens.
In a sense, one can hardly blame the farmer groups; with government so powerful, if you don't have Congress stealing for your side, they'll be robbing you for the other side. In fact, the worst off are those that don't belong to a special interest group that can bribe Congress to steal from everyone else. These unfortunate families get robbed by all these various groups and don't even get the satisfaction of returning the favor! I wonder if the Washington Post will ever do a story on them?
With the Presidency and Congress corrupted and the people apathetic, can the judicial branch stop the madness?
CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown would certainly try. Justice Brown believes:
Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible. <..>
We no longer find slavery abhorrent. We embrace it. We demand more. Big government is not just the opiate of the masses. It is the opiate. The drug of choice for multinational corporations and single moms; for regulated industries and rugged Midwestern farmers and militant senior citizens.
However, Justice Brown's nomination to the DC court of Appeals, one of the most powerful courts in the country, was blocked by Senate Democrats: "Justice Brown, your record is that of a conservative judicial activist, plain and simple," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois. "You frequently dismiss judicial precedence ... when it doesn't comport with your political views." According to Senator Durbin, protecting citizens from elected burglars is a clear sign of a political agenda.
From http://www.smithbrothersfarms.com/
Here’s what you can do: Write the USDA
The public has until June 13 to give comments on this change to the USDA. The public has a very large stake in this issue and we at Smith Brothers Farms encourage individuals and officials to stand up against this harmful change.
Go to www.keepmilkpriceslow.org and follow the instructions to comment to the USDA
Tell the USDA not to pass the amendments making producer-handlers pay into the pool. Tell them you are concerned about the health of independent, family-owned dairies and the impact making them pay into the pool would have on the cost and choice for consumers in dairy products. Your opinion counts! Write them today. Thank you.
Sent these clowns at USDA an email. Takes 2 minutes.
Free Republic. All I am stating is a possiblity, but you act like it's a personal insult to you. Why is that?
That is an incorrect statement. I do not know what our national food reserve is but it has nothing to with 5 days. Your statement was premised on no deliveries to grocery stores that has nothing to do with actual food in storage. You have moved a dairy regulation story to some wild universal trucker/railroad strike disaster. Also to other posters there is little if any subsidy of the beef cattle business, farming is however very subsidized. I for one do not believe that if farm subsidies were eliminated food production would stop in this country. Drive into Kansas,Nebraska, Iowa or any other agricultural state and see for yourself. Food prices would vary in a free market but to say we would be at the mercy of foreign imports is silly. Certain products such as fruits and vegetables might well be largely offshore but not staples like grains or soybeans.
No one on this thread was bashing the small american farmer. Good lord, you need reading comprehension lessons. We are defending the small farmer against government tyranny.
You made my point by posting that info....are you agreeing with me or do you not understand what I am writing?
A relevant thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1414519/posts
It was the WAY you said it... apparently condemning without reading the article. It and the dairy's own website state that THE DAIRY would have to subsidize their competitors under one scheme. It is FAR from clear that they receive any government subsidies of any sort. If they do, it should stop, of course!
"I've always wondered, why a gallon of milk costs more than a gallon of gasoline."
Maybe because an oil well can give millions of barrels of oil while a cow can only give a gallon or two at a time? Cows consume feed, oil wells need only be drilled?
Then we should drill for milk instead........Why can't they make real artificial milk? They make real artificial oil......
LOL!!!!Put up a sign: No stump breakers allowed....
Nonsense. End corporate welfare for agri-business along with burdensome regulations, at the same time force countries that want to trade with us to open up their markets. The United States would OWN the world's agriculture markets. Our trade deficits with east Asia would shrink if not completely disappear if Japan, Taiwan and China were forced to allow our rice on their store shelves without protectionist taxes.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1572002/posts
Small dairyman shakes up milk industry
Thank you.
So I guess there is something magic about food that does not follow the law of supply and demand. I challenge anyone on the FR to show the TRUE cost of any food item at the supermarket by including the huge hidden cost of government subsidies, regulated supply, planting rights, ADMINISTRATION.
Without exception anything subsidized is more expensive when ALL the costs are allowed to be seen. There is good reason we never know all the costs.
My SIL and her husband ran a dairy farm. They are Conservatives in every other aspect of their lives except the farm. The government (you and me) paid them to stop milking and dispose of their herd. The government (you and me) forgave all their debt and allowed them to stay on the farm FREE. Very expensive FREE IMO. Exactly how much does a gallon of milk cost when hidden costs like this are factored in? It is IMPOSIBLE to add a huge government bureaucracy and artificially limit supply without adding cost.
Boy some of us are not very Conservative when it comes to our little world.
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