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The American dairy farm is the result of events much larger than milking or feeding cows. Ask for the family history of any dairy farmer and it will begin with a people in another country across an ocean.
Larger world events drove them or their parents or grandparents to America, where they started and grew the farm enterprise of today.
Examples abound among the Dutch and Portuguese ancestries of many Western dairymen or the Scandinavians now dairying in the Upper Midwest.
Editor’s note: The following is a follow-up report to an article titled, “What does a gallon of milk cost?” published in 2009. Google made that article popular with consumers on www.progressivedairy.com; it has received more than 10,000 pageviews in the last two years. Click here to read Ben Yale's article from the September 1, 2009, issue of Progressive Dairyman.
Following milk from the farm to the truck to the plant through the processing into the bottle onto another truck to the store and into the dairy cooler is easily understood. Following the money back from that cooler to the farm is a different story.
Post-Civil War, the nation’s industry rapidly grew and expanded throughout the continent. Telegraph lines linked every corner of the country, providing nearly instantaneous spread of news.
Railroads brought distant places within a few days’ train ride. Railroads required steel, coal and money. In the center of that expansion, geographically and financially, was Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh’s most notable citizens included the contemporaries William Thaw (Pennsylvania Railroad), Andrew Carnegie (U.S. Steel), Andrew Mellon (banking) and Henry Frick (all three).
A giant statue of a warrior on horseback stands in the place de Jaude, the central square in Clermont-Ferrand, France. This is no figure sitting on a stationary horse, but of a man with sword drawn, the horse in full gallop. The image is so vivid it is easy to imagine it rapidly moving on.
Sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, known to Americans as the man who designed the Statute of Liberty, the great rider is Versingetorix, (vers-n-ge-to-rex) “Great Warrior King,” a man that united the Gallic tribes (in what is now more or less France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany) against a foreign invader.
When I designed my office, the first plans came back bid at about two times more than I had budgeted.
I called in a long-time friend who was a builder. I went over the plans and pointed to areas where I thought I could cut costs – more siding, less brick, for example.
In the last weeks of July 2011, the highest levels of government provided Americans a high-stakes political battle over raising the national debt limit. The current debt at $14.5 trillion was not high enough. To cover annual trillion-dollar deficits, the White House wanted another couple of trillion.
Some in Congress said, “Sure.” Others said, “Not so fast.” And still others simply said, “No!” The White House battled Congress, the House battled the Senate, Republicans battled Democrats, the White House battled Republicans, and Republicans battled Republicans.
The traditional Fourth of July celebration on the National Mall reaches a climax when the National Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by 16 cannons and city church bells, plays Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” The piece celebrates the forcing of Napoleon out of Moscow in 1812 and Russia’s ultimate victory two years later when Tsar Alexander I led a triumphant Russian army through the streets of Paris.
Napoleon had waged war in Europe for almost 23 years and, at that time, boasted the best army machine (being best does not guarantee victory, however). As a result, Napoleon ruled most of Europe until he was sent to exile on the island of Elba. He did not stay long. Nine months later he escaped and led the 100-day campaign that ended with his final defeat at Waterloo.
The Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth II, like all cruise ships, is an entertainment venue on the high seas. Center stage for the QE II is the Grand Lounge, a two-story room with a stage at one end. Passengers enjoy the evening entertainment or nightly dance 65 feet above the waterline.
On September 11, 1995, a different show occurred in the room. As the ship crossed rough Atlantic seas, a wave hit the windows of the Grand Lounge, crushing them. Less than a quarter of an hour later, Captain R.W. Warwick saw what he later described as the “white cliffs of Dover” straight ahead of the ship.
On December 14, 1799, George Washington died. Two days earlier he spent five hours riding around his Mt. Vernon farm in a winter storm. After being exposed to the extended cold and wetness, he contracted what is believed by many to be acute epiglottis. This piece of anatomy in the upper throat, when inflamed, can swell.
Even by today’s standards it can be life-threatening, but generally antibiotics are sufficient for full recovery. Untreated, the epiglottis swells, suffocating the victim.
Measured in terms of the area affected (parts of the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas), the number of refugees (over 1.5 million people) and length (it began upstream late 1926 and flood waters did not recede until June 1927), the Great Flood of 1927 ranks as America’s worst natural disaster.
