Bonacic urges march on Albany, DC

Dairy meeting in Jeffersonville

By TOM KANE

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — Over 75 dairy farmers and agri-business representatives showed up for an emergency meeting called by the Cornell Cooperative Extension on September 23 at the Jeffersonville firehouse on Callicoon Center Road, to try to resolve the milk-pricing crisis that is playing out in New York, Pennsylvania and across the country.

Of all the elected officials invited, only New York State Senator John Bonacic showed up.

“It they don’t come here, then go to them,” Bonacic said. Bonacic said that the milk crisis called for drastic action like a march on Albany and Washington, DC.

Thunder 101 broadcast the meeting. Bonacic said that the state officials from New York City are not supporting dairy farmers.

“The New York City delegation hasn’t a clue,” he said. Millions are being allocated for drug programs, for assistance to people in danger of losing their homes and other social programs, but nothing for the dairy crisis. About 50 percent of the legislature comes from the city, he said.

Bonacic, who said New York Governor David Paterson ignored his plea to use stimulus money to support dairy farmers, pledged to work hard for dairy farmers.

“It’s a full-blown disaster that we have now, not just a crisis, but a full-blown disaster,” said Orange County dairyman Tunis Sweetman Jr. “Something extraordinary has to be done to get our message out.”

The main question is how to change the milk pricing system. “The old pricing system is killing us. It has to change,” he said.

“The milk coops are making record profits but they’re not doing anything to help us,” said Wayne County dairyman Brian Smith, who is also the chairman of the Wayne County Commissioners.

In Smith’s view, the worst culprit among the coops is the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), which is the largest coop in Northeast Pennsylvania. “DFA is importing milk protein concentrate from Europe and dumping it on our market,” Smith said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is applying band-aids to the problem and ignoring the real solution, which is to change the draconian pricing system, he said.

“We have to get behind the legislation being proposed by Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey in Congress that proposes a fair pricing system,” said Arden Tewksbury of the Progressive Agriculture Organization. “Congress is all focused on health care,” Bonacic said. “This issue is just as crucial.”