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This article was #23 in PDmag's Top 25 most-well read articles in 2010.
Summary: After the news broke of the abuse video at Conklin dairy, Editor Walt Cooley focused on animal welfare in his Issue 11 2010 editorial. He challenged producers to adopt the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) program and to make animal well-being standards a priority.
The following are select comments shared during the open public comment periods at the USDA/U.S. Department of Justice dairy workshop in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 25.
“We’ve always been cooperative members. … It is a relief to hear the change of direction that occurred that the Capper-Volstead Act is not under the gun. My co-op supports our family by finding the best price for our product and a low cost for our inputs. Both those needs are important, as we found out in spades in the last year and a half. As dairy producers we are tremendously good at what we do. We’re not so good at marketing most of the time.
The other day Reg, my husband, and I were traveling across the Navajo Reservation near Many Farms, Arizona. We saw hundreds of motorcyclists in black suits and masks driving towards us. My heart leaped to my throat as we pulled to a stop at the man-made road block.
This is my final article from Iraq. My 16-month tour is over. I have traveled about 40 percent of my time here, reaching every province but one. I have worked with nearly two dozen USDA ag advisers in the field and several of them here in Baghdad.
Throughout high school and college it seemed like everyone I knew had a seasonal or part-time job working at a restaurant. I remember one really fun summer as a cook at my uncle’s restaurant. His managers typically only hired cute girls to work the “front of the house,” so I never made my way up near the customers.
However, I learned a lot of interesting things working in the bar and restaurant industry that summer. In fact, one of the lessons I learned was that it’s not politically correct to call waiters and waitresses by those titles. For those of you who haven’t already heard, the proper term these days is server.
I will support any action, measure or legislation that will aid and/or comfort U.S. dairy farm families. In a recent e-mail, I was asked my view on the prospects of a specific measure, U.S. Senate Bill S 1645, The Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009.
I am in travel status most of my last few months here in Iraq. As I write, I have just less than a month to finish my 16-month tour. I look forward to turning my PPE, or body armor, in for the last time. That will be done in Kuwait at Ali Al Salem Air Base.
(Click here to listen to the podcast of this column.)
Two of my children, Paul and Ashley, have finished high school and are going out into the world “to seek their fortune,” as it is often written in fairy tale language. Of course, we do not live in a fairy tale world, and without proper planning things do not turn our happily ever after.
Heading into June Dairy Month and the dairy promotion season, I’m concerned by two recent conversations I've had with dairy consumers. I share these backyard barbecue conversations, both of which were with my friends, in hopes that it will help reopen a discussion about dairy product processing and imaging.
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