The Northeast Dairy Summit was held on March 20th at the Sheraton Conference Center. It was sponsored by Dairy Farmers Working Together. About 300 people attended, including dairy leaders from California, Florida and Idaho, as well as many Vermont farmers. Gov. Douglas started the meeting with brief comments.
Panelists included:
Calvin (Cal) Covington, CEO of Southeast Milk, Inc. in Belleview, FL
John Meyer, CEO of Holstein Association USA in Brattleboro, VT
Jim Stewart, farmer and former President of the Idaho Dairymen's Association
Bob Naerebout, Executive Director of the Idaho Dairymen's Association
Sybrand Vander Dussen, farmer and President of the Milk Producers Council in Chino, CA
Roger Allbee, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
Rob VandenHeuvel, General Manager of the Milk Producers Council in Chino, CA
Dr. Chuck Nicholson of the Cornell Program on Dairy Markets and Policy gave a presentation on a Growth Management Program (GMP).
Ray Souza, farmer and President of Western United Dairymen in Modesto, CA, spoke to the audience by phone.
There was a wide range of opinions expressed at the meeting. At one of the spectrum, Mr. Stewart advocated strong free market policies. At the other end of the sprectrum, Mr. Meyer advocated a strong supply management program that would require farmers to "sacrifice individual entrepreneurial freedom."
Dairy Farmers Working Together hopes that forums like this will help farmers reach common ground, but for me one takeaway from the meeting was that the dairy industry is more divided than I had previously thought. Click here for the DFWT page about the Summit. This page has links to some of the presentations and also links to news articles about the event. Yankee Vice Chairperson Paul Gingue is quoted in the Burlington Free Press article: "Farmers brainstorm policy fixes." Another good article about the Summit is in the St. Albans Messenger: "Regional dairy interests struggle to find solutions."
