Got Milk?
Each year the World Ag Expo in Tulare hosts farmers, ranchers, suppliers, manufacturers, and related ag industries from nearly every country on earth. For several years, recruiters from states like Idaho, New Mexico, Texas and Kentucky have arrived early to the 3-day Expo and stayed late to try to lure San Joaquin Valley dairymen to their states. They want the milk production, sure, but more than that they envy the many jobs that come along, and the taxes paid, and the superior farming practices developed by generations of family dairying under difficult California regulations.
The good news is that California still leads the nation in total production of milk and milk products. The bad news is that these days it costs more to produce a gallon of milk than dairymen can sell it for – and it’s been like this for quite a while.
Anja Raudabaugh, the CEO of Western United Dairymen, says California’s environmental and labor regulations account for more than half of what producers have to spend BEFORE feed, overhead, insurance, etc., much more than the cost of production in any other state. “Profit is non-existent for the average California dairy family,” said Raudabaugh. That is why an alarming number of established family-owned dairy operators are either leaving the business or leaving the state, and the rate seems to be accelerating.
“They’ve already driven out all the dairies from the Los Angeles area,” says Manual Cunha, President of the Nisei Farmers League, “now the same thing is happening here.” The “they” he refers to are the regulators, the California Department of Water Resources, the Air Resources Board, the Labor Department, OSHA, the EPA and a dozen other state and federal agencies, all of which are smothering with regulations the very farmers and ranchers who provide the bulk of America’s fresh food and fiber. “It’s a disaster, the lost job will never come back.” concludes Cunha.
More than 500 dairies have shut down or fled California since 2008. At the end of last year there were 1,465 licensed diaries still operating in California. Since the beginning of this year more than one dairy has shut down each week. “The reality is much worse,” explains Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairymen, “The state has lost 56 dairies (this year, as of mid-November). They are just not willing to take the risk any more.” And the new methane law will surely speed up the exodus.
Tulare Farmer, Mark Watte, who passed away last June from cancer, told me two years ago that there hasn’t been a new dairy built in California in years and there might never be another one. He said that the militant liberal environmental cabal centered in the Bay Area wants nothing more than to eliminate the agricultural sector from the San Joaquin Valley. Completely. Representative Devin Nunes feels the same and misses no opportunity to say so. The fact that Rep. Nunes is ascending the power ladder in Washington, DC and apparently has some influence with the incoming Trump administration is a very good thing but of little comfort for the herd of dairymen desperately seeking to get out or the ones already gone.
There are vague indications that the radical environmentalists’ grip on all things in California might be weakening. Just this week we learned that an essential new water bill is heartily supported by Senator Dianne Feinstein, while her 98% ideological pal, Barbara Boxer, remains steadfast against any common sense in the water world, although she reluctantly gave up her filibuster bluster late Friday afternoon. Boxer has served as California’s junior senator since 1993. She has reliably shown her disdain for nearly every legislative proposal that would aid, advance, or support Central California agricultural interests. For years she has blocked any reasonable compromise to transfer northern California water supplies to Southland water users. Boxer exits in a month, Feinstein stays, and the Trump administration promises to bring adult perspective to government, including a much more flexible application of the Endangered Species Act which allows pumping some water through the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta under certain conditions. Senator Boxer opposes pumping under ANY conditions. For many dairy farmers is too late and Barbara Boxer shares much of the blame.
This is the state that began the 21st century with abundant and valuable timber resources, yet chose to decimate the lumber industry – 40% of lumber manufacturers have given up in the past ten years, taking with them 10,000 jobs.
This is the state with more proven oil and gas reserves than the Middle East, yet chooses to choke off production almost entirely.
This is the state that is blessed with vast stretches of first-rate agricultural land with a perfect climate to feed much of the world, yet regulators withhold essential water necessary to make plants grow. In fact, the regulators now divert more cool, clean northern California rainfall to the ocean, unused, than they send to the southland for efficient use by human beings. So, it stands to reason that the eliminators next would go hard against the dairy industry.
The latest insult is almost too preposterous to contemplate.
It’s a reduction through regulation of the amount of methane gas produced by cows! Granted, methane is known to be a much more deleterious greenhouse gas than carbon monoxide. Governor Brown signed SB 13-83 in September. It requires a huge reduction in methane entering the pristine California atmosphere by 2030. Can Guernseys and Holsteins be reasoned with about this? Of course not. So, what to do? Move to Idaho, of course, where there is no cow fart law.
Manuel Cunha points to the new overtime law as another factor pushing dairies, and other farmers out of the Valley. It requires that farmworkers be paid overtime for anything over eight hours of work per day. Never mind that they customarily work ten or more hours per day and are content to keep doing so. Owners say they cannot afford overtime, they will either hire other workers to finish a ten-hour work day, while their prime workers drive to another farm to work a few more hours each day, or, they will cut back production until they can leave California.
It’s tough to be a dairy farmer these days in California. So, we can only ask: Will the last cow to leave California please turn out the lights?