LEMOYNE, Pa. — Following is a statement from Pennsylvania State Grange President Wayne Campbell:
National Agriculture Day is a time to celebrate the bounty that is the result of Pennsylvania’s farmers and families that toil not only for them but also to feed a hungry nation and a world. But government and individuals must work together to protect it. Pennsylvania agriculture is not just about food. It is about FAMILY FARMS and a major number of them are in trouble.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Center for Dairy Excellence is doing what it can, an example of which was an open forum with dairy farmers in Lebanon County yesterday, March 19. The General Assembly can play an important role too, by ensuring that the State Budget continues to support the work of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture by reinstating the State Budget line item for the Center for Dairy Excellence which is helping our sorely stressed dairy farmers. It was eliminated in the Governor’s original Budget proposal. The General Assembly should also work hand in hand with Governor Wolf and his Cabinet agencies to increase dairy processing capacity in the Commonwealth.
But public policy is simply not enough. A big reason dairy farmers are facing hardships now is that there simply is not enough consumption of dairy products. Somehow, the public has conceived the notion that whole milk is bad for kids. Recent studies have simply shown that this is not true. A recent study from the National Institutes of Health studied the impact of whole milk nutritionally on a group of Latino youth. Not only did it document nutritional value, it also demonstrated that whole milk helps curb obesity. Drinking more milk, eating more cheese and yogurt by themselves cannot by themselves restore dairy farmers to financial health. Government should do its part, for example for USDA to allow whole milk to be served to kids in our schools. But something we all can do is to simply drink more milk.
— Pennsylvania State Grange