December 2002
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At least we have company. America's beef and hog producers are also reeling from low prices, and crop producers, even though their prices are better, are in many parts of the country suffering from drought-ravaged yields that are every bit as poor as the milk prices are for dairy farmers. All in all, there's not much cheer to share with the relatives in the annual Christmas letter.
In times like these, the question is usually asked, Could things possibly get any worse? And that's where it is good to retain some perspective. Regarding prices, things won't really get worse, thanks to the price support program's reauthorization in the 2002 Farm Bill. Although it was passed more than six months prior to Christmas, renewing the price support program is really the biggest and best gift we could have this year. The new Milk Income Loss Contract program is also a nifty gift, particularly because it couldn't come at a better time. The Farm Bill also contained a few other nice stocking stuffers, including a new national Johne's disease control program, a lot more money for the EQIP program, more money to build dairy exports, and more.
Admittedly, none of these things is going to boost prices immediately, so the question still remains, Could things be any worse? And in trying to answer that, there are some additional points that need to be kept into perspective.
Across a handful of countries in southern Africa, nearly 40 million people (that's the population of California, Oregon and Washington combined) may starve to death in the coming months because they don't have enough food. But to make matters worse, the leaders in some of the countries where the starvation is worst have refused U.S. food aid because it contains genetically-modified corn. So even while Americans have been eating the same corn for years, sick and hungry African children will be denied access to the product, even if it costs them their lives. Meanwhile, billions of other people around the world lack clean water, access to medicine, books and education, and have few of the same civil liberties we take for granted.
This recitation of woes elsewhere is not meant to make light of the hard times in the dairy industry in this country, only to illustrate that having one day's milk from just one cow would be a gift of unimaginable value to half the people on the planet.
One small way we can extend our blessings is by helping hungry people overseas get access to U.S. dairy products. For the past five years, Dairy Relief Inc. has been working to distribute milk powder across all five continents to needy individuals. Dairy Relief is the only non-profit charity whose sole mission is sharing high-quality U.S. dairy goods with the less fortunate.
Yet Dairy Relief's future is clouded by a lack of ongoing support from the dairy community. Your tax-deductible contribution to DRI this Christmas would be a double blessing, in that it would help keep Dairy Relief going, and it would ultimately end up helping a hungry person (usually a child) get a nutritious serving of milk. Few gifts any of us could give this Christmas would have greater value.
To find out more about contributing to Dairy Relief, visit its website at http://www.dairyrelief.org/, or call (618) 654-3676.
