Food and water watch, 2023
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/RPT2_2301_EconomicCostofDairy-WEB.pdf
- Between 1997 and 2017, changes in cow genetics and the rapid expansion of factory farms increased U.S. milk production by 38 percent, while the total number of dairy cows remained relatively steady.
- However, methane emissions from dairy manure management more than doubled from 1990 to 2020, thanks to factory farm waste management practices that can release significantly more methane than pasture-based systems. Manure from animal agriculture
- More milk does not mean more farm income but instead contributes to price swings. Many dairies face low milk prices despite rising production costs. The average U.S. dairy managed to turn a profit just twice between 2000 and 2021.
- For decades, U.S. dairy policy managed price swings by removing excess dairy from the market. But in the early 2000s, policy shifted from managing supply to expanding export markets. This lined the pockets of agribusinesses while leaving farmers captive to volatile international markets. Real milk prices did not improve but fluctuated dramatically, and were slightly lower in 2021 compared to 2000.
Dairy farmers pay mandatory assessments to the Dairy Checkoff program, which ostensibly funds the general promotion of U.S. dairy products but in reality funds corporate partnerships that do not help farmers. Food & Water Watch estimates that U.S. dairy farmers paid roughly $4 billion into the Checkoff program between 2005 and 2018.
Similarly misguided state policies also waste money on corporate schemes. For example, Food & Water Watch identified nearly $75 million
in New York taxpayer dollars that flowed to just a handful of corporate or cooperative entities in the last 20 years, with the promise of a few thousand jobs — some of which were quickly lost when dairy plants closed.
One proposal is to use a “market access fee,” where farmers would pay a fee to increase production beyond a base; that money would be redistributed to farmers who did not expand, thereby reducing the incentive to expand.
Canada has a great milk system:
- Quotas and price floors to prevent oversupply that prices down prices.
- dairy exports are generally reserved for getting rid of modest oversupply rather than driving profits
- Canadian farmers earn 42% more for their milk with no increase in price to consumers