Iowa could lead the way to transform our agriculture system – beginning with dairy farms
With the announcement in April 2024 of a Daisy Brand dairy processing facility to be built in Boone, Iowa, and the following pronouncements of the positive aspects of this new facility would be to rural Iowa, it would be prudent to take a closer look the plight of dairy farmers, how their loss has impacted our state, and how we can use the dairy issue to see a path for transforming agriculture in Iowa - and beyond.
I grew up in the 1960’s on an Iowa dairy farm. To be precise, my family had a diverse farm that included dairy cows. The character of our farm, the seasonal flow of work, was largely defined by the 20 or so gentle Guernseys that needed to be milked morning and evening. One of my most pleasant memories of that farm was when my siblings and I would ‘bring the cows home’ from the far corner of the pasture.
In 1964, there were 59,673 farms with dairy cows in Iowa. By the time I graduated from high school in 1974, that number had dropped to 18,213. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, Iowa’s farms with dairy cows had dropped to 1,016. Large mega-dairies with thousands of cows in confinement have increased in number made possible by cheap feed and low-paid immigrant labor. These mega-dairies often tap into USDA programs and tax credits for the instillation of false solutions as manure digesters to collect methane. As Iowans, we have already experienced the immense harms of this model of agriculture. Thus, I believe the economic, environmental, social, and cultural benefits of the traditional diverse farm that previous generations understood should not be ignored.
The serious issues that Iowa is struggling to deal with today – poor water quality, degraded and eroded soil, and hollowed-out rural communities – are largely the result of these changes in our use of the land. These changes were not inevitable. The gradual elimination of New Deal agriculture policies that included parity prices for farm products, supply management, and public food reserves that stabilized the farm economy set the trajectory of agriculture that today gives farmers little choice but to specialize instead of diversify. Now, most farmers grow just two crops as farmland has consolidated into fewer and fewer hands and livestock has been moved from the farm to confinement facilities. Farmers with dairy cows have been in an especially difficult financial situation as the price of milk has been allowed to go so low, despite the complex pricing scheme of the Federal Milk Marketing Orders meant to stabilize milk prices, resulting in a struggle to stay afloat. Instead of the sensible crop rotations with hay, small grains, and pasture that livestock need and that protect soil and water, we mine the soil to produce as much corn and soybeans as possible to feed those livestock now in confinements – and to produce ethanol.
It is ironic – even angering - that former Iowa Governor and current US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack lamented the loss of farmers when he released the 2022 Census of Agriculture earlier this year which showed that the US lost nearly 142,000 farms, including a 40% drop in dairy farms from 2017 to 2022. He declared that these dire statistics on the loss of US farms should be a wake-up call. "Are we OK with losing that many farms?" he asked rhetorically.
The reality is that Secretary Vilsack has held positions of influence where he could have helped stop and even reverse this decline. Besides, in 2018, while serving as president and CEO of the US Dairy Export Council, his salary was nearly $1 million, at the very same time in which we were losing dairy farms. Secretary Vilsack should know that rhetoric is not enough to stop this loss.
The announcement in April of Daisy Brand’s decision to build a dairy processing facility in Boone seemed to bring hope that the milk required for this facility would reinvigorate rural Iowa and its dairy farms. With $67.2 million in state and local incentives, how will this benefit Iowa? Pronouncements were glowing. Job creation was the major benefit. However, Iowa Governor Reynolds and Secretary of Agriculture Naig along with Ames Chamber of Commerce president Dan Culhane, Boone County Economic Growth Corporation executive director Brenda Dryer, and Iowa State Dairy Association executive director Mariah Busta each voiced their enthusiasm for the positive outcomes this new facility will bring to Iowa’s farmers.
In fact, Culhane estimated that an additional 43,000 milk cows would be needed to supply the milk, adding that this would be “transformational” in its benefits to rural Iowa.
Transformational? One new processing facility? This sounds like the typical politician’s promise that we just need new markets for our products and all will be well. What is the reality? Daisy could transport milk from another state. Even if it does source its milk from Iowa, it could imitate the playbook of Tillamook, a dairy processing farmer-owned coop that claims to support farmers. Yet, Tillamook sources milk from Threemile Canyon Farms in Oregon which has 33,000 dairy cows.
To truly be transformational, we need systemic change which would take immense political will, which is non-existent in Iowa.
Instead, Iowans boast that we are number one in corn, pork, and egg production, and number two in soybeans. Our priorities are misplaced. Imagine the wide-ranging benefits of $67.2 million in incentives if the company were required to buy its milk – and pay a fair price - from 250 farms within a 100-mile radius of Boone each with 200 or fewer dairy cows. What if Iowa could boast that we are the state that is leading the transformation of our agriculture system to diversify our farms? We would encourage new, beginning, BIPOC, and women famers, and revitalize our rural communities. We would demand that federal farm policy includes parity prices, supply management, and reformed international trade so all farmers can use the land they steward wisely. We would promote an ecologically-sound agriculture system with livestock on the land to mitigate climate change, clean our water and create healthy soils, eliminate chemical pesticides, and increase biodiversity. With more family farms, we would reconnect people – especially children – to the importance of our natural world.
Imagine that. Imagine what Iowa could be.