Minnesota Farmers Union

St. Paul (June 24, 2010) - On Friday, June 24, Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) Vice President Gary Wertish and MFU Government Relations Director Thom Petersen will be attending the Department of Justice and the United States Department of Agriculture's workshop about the dairy industry.  The workshop will be held at the University of Wisconsin - Madison at the Union Theater in Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street.

"Fair competition and price discovery are hampered by the concentration of the dairy industry in the hands of a few," said Doug Peterson, Minnesota Farmers Union President.  "This concentration serves the bottom line of the companies, not the family farmers or the consumers.  I hope these hearings will start to pinpoint solutions for fairer competition and price discovery so our family farmers can compete and stay in business."

WASHINGTON (July 21, 2009) - Carver County Minnesota Farmers Union President Scott Hoese testified before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry today on the devastating economic conditions within the dairy industry. As a dairy farmer, Hoese said the current situation is unlike any experienced in the past and the width and depth cannot continue to be ignored.

"This crisis has not discriminated based upon herd size or geographic location," Hoese said. "The rollercoaster market dairy producers have been riding becomes more severe with each passing year, with the highs not lasting long enough to mitigate the lows".

Hoese told the subcommittee dairy farmers need a lifeline now. "There is no single factor why the dairy industry is in the economic condition it is in and there is no single option to solve this crisis. It will take a suite of options from Congress and the administration to ensure short-term survival and long-term prosperity for America's dairy farmers," he said.

St. Paul (February 24, 2009) - Minnesota Farmers Union's Full Board of Directors, which consists of all of its county presidents, recently met and passed a Special Order on the dairy industry.

The Special Order states that because of catastrophic low prices and high input costs the nearly 5,000 Minnesota dairy farmers are facing, the following should take place: