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Photojournalistas.com |
| Sept/Oct, 2002 |
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"You pay the farm stuff first and then the personal stuff comes later. We juggle stuff around enough so that everything gets paid at some point."
-Burton Hinton |
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Dan Smith, the first executive director of the compact, says that the compact was not created just to help family dairy farmers stay in business but that it was designed "to insure that the local supply of milk to the market place was continued. So it’s not just for the farmers’ interest. It’s also the product of the farm (milk). We’re dealing with 17 million consumers and 3,000 farmers so if you don’t promote the interest of the 17 million who cares about 3,000? There had to be some benefit in terms of market stability without undue cost to the consumers. So it’s a balancing of the consumer and farmer interest in the market." Regardless of the effects that it had upon consumers, it did make a huge difference for the region’s dairy farmers.  The Hinton farm is an example of how the compact has kept some family farms hovering above the breaking point where farmers decide to get of the business. "It made a huge difference, especially when it first came out…It makes a difference between me getting my own light bill paid. You pay the farm stuff first and then the personal stuff comes later. We juggle stuff around enough so that everything gets paid at some point….We might have made it without it (the compact) but it’s sure as hell nice to be able, when the milk check and the compact check comes, to pay the monthly bills when they’re due and not be three months behind. The compact has definitely leveled things out for us. It’s put us on a level playing field with the processors."Small dairy farmers like Hinton were not the only ones to benefit from the Compact when milk prices became depressed. Paul Knox has two farms in Wells River, Vermont, a town located along the Connecticut River bordering New Hampshire. Knox’s 16 employees service about 900 cows. Despite the size of his farms, Knox feels the bite when milk prices take a dive. He has to feed cows and pay his employees regardless. "When prices were low it was a big help, of course it only paid money when there was a low price. There was about a year when it was quite a big help to us, maybe a little more. Sometimes it made a big difference." George and William Flood of Clinton, Maine, run the Flood Brothers Farm, one of the largest dairy farms in New England, supporting 2,350 cows of which 1,190 are milkers. Even on such a large farm, the Compact had a tremendous impact. "Big time," George says. "It’s one of the best things that ever happened to us. If anyone says something bad about the Compact, they’d better take a trip to have themselves evaluated. Whether you got 10 cows or a thousand, the Compact’s helpful." Whether the compact was helpful is no longer an issue. It was due for renewal in the U.S. Congress in September of 2001, the same month that terrorist attacks focused they eyes of America and Congress eyes squarely on national security. In addition the efforts of Midwest lawmakers, who felt the compact was hurting their farmers, and large national milk processors that never liked the compact, forced the programs demise. A new program that is part of the 2002 farm bill is supposed to replace the compact, but this will be taxpayer supported rather than processor funded and be structured differently. |
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