Washington D.C. (September 18, 2009) – The National Family Farm Coalition, as a member of the international farmers movement La Via Campesina, has released a statement highlighting the common struggles of dairy farmers around the globe who are all suffering from an unprecedented economic crisis as farm milk prices have collapsed globally. Prices for U.S. dairy farmers have collapsed to 1970s level due to a corrupt pricing system and a highly consolidated industry controlled by a few corporate entities. Paul Rozwadowski, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and chairman of the NFFC Dairy Subcommittee said, “The Via Campesina statement shows that dairy farmers around the globe are all suffering from the effects of free trade and the World Trade Organization’s devastating push for deregulation that pits dairy farmers against each other while corporations like Kraft and Nestle reap all the profits.”

The Via Campesina statement notes that EU and Indonesian dairy farmers have all suffered under the WTO’s agricultural liberalization policies. Diversified family farms are increasingly being replaced by industrial factory farms and cheap imports dumped into local markets. Donna Hall, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer, said, “Consumers are demanding local, fresh food, not cheap substitute milk protein concentrates from the likes of India that are used in Kraft's products. It is obscene to sacrifice the livelihoods of dairy farmers, our rural communities and our domestic milk production on the altars of a fatally flawed corporate globalization agenda. The last thing Americans want is to become dependent on Chinese powdered milk. But thanks to the WTO, that is the situation that confronts us as American dairy farmers keep going out of business.”

This week, thousands of farmers across Europe have been dumping millions of litres of milk and protesting in the streets. NFFC applauds their actions.

For article on EU protests see:

http://euobserver.com/9/28678

The Via Campesina statement is attached and can also be found here:

http://www.viacampesina.org/main_en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=778&Itemid=38