Time for Plan B.
State legislators Pete Lopez and Jim Seward had hoped to tap into federal stimulus funds as a way of offering short-term, immediate help to struggling dairy farmers.
But it looks like the money’s not there.
The two floated the idea at a late-July Emergency Dairy Summit in Lawyersville, where farmers and agbusinessmen alike said they can’t survive much longer, getting 1970s prices for milk—and warned the fallout will be felt on Main Street when they can’t pay their school and property taxes.
Both State Senator Seward and Assemblyman Lopez had cautioned they’re not sure whether the $1 billion in federal stimulus money they hoped to tap into even exists and Assemblyman Lopez said Thursday and again Monday that his sources seem to indicate the money isn’t there.
“It looks like it may have just been a ‘bookmark’, a ‘dry appropriation’ subject to the availability of money,” he explained.
“We’re still trying to get confirmation, but we may be looking at a mirage.”
Just the same and just in case they’re wrong, Senator Seward and Assemblyman Lopez have written to Governor David Paterson, asking him to release a minimum of $60 million in federal emergency stimulus funds for immediate help.
Assemblyman Lopez said other legislators across the state are doing the same.
“We need to present a united front and keep the pressure on,” he said.
“Washington bailed out AIG and other Wall Street businesses...Many dairy farmers are this close to selling the farm. The industry is every bit as important as GM and something needs to be done.
“Milk prices are dropping and many of our farmers are on the brink,” added Senator Seward.
“We need to take immediate action or it will be too late.”
Cobleskill dairy farmers John and Debbie Stanton agree.
“A lot of people aren’t going to be here in another six months,” Mr. Stanton said at Saturday’s Sunshine Fair.
“We just heard that [USDA Agriculture Secretary Tom] Vilsack is increasing prices on August through October milk, but what we really need is an expansion of MILC—and is Vilsack’s increase going to hurt what we’re already getting there? No one seems to know.”
All of this comes with word that New York State is $2 billion deeper in debt than anyone realized and it’s expected Governor Paterson will call legislators back to Albany as soon as September to revise the budget.
Assemblyman Lopez said that doesn’t make dairy farmers’ case any less urgent and he and Senator Seward still hope to see the $60 million shifted from other stimulus allocation into farmers’ pockets.
But they’re the first to admit it won’t be easy.
“It’s going to be difficult,” Assemblyman Lopez said, “but my sense is that there’s sympathy in the Governor’s office.
“The question is: Can we provide an approach that we can defend? Our farmers don’t give up easily and I don’t either.”

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According to the United States Dairy Farmers organization, the increase in the support price planned by the USDA is expected to net farmers about $2 more per hundred pounds for August-October milk.
For farmers who haven’t reached their MILC cap, it’s also expected to reduce those payments by 50 cents per hundred pounds.

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A rally for farmers, agbusinessmen, and consumers sponsored by Pro-Ag will be held Friday, August 14, 1pm at the Mount Markham Middle School, Route 20, West Winfield, to address possible longterm milk pricing solutions.
For more information, contact David Fitch (315) 822-5093 or Richard Becker, (315) 866-2379, email proagorg@yahoo.com.