Save Organic Dairy Farm families by raising the price they are paid for their milk

Organic farm families are suffering while processors and retailers thrive, and consumers have a product with a retail price 20¢ per gallon lower than in 2008 . A recently published summary of a seven year study by the University of Vermont showed that organic dairy farmers have lost equity in their business since 2006, suffering heavily in 2009, with many farmers only able to remain in business because of federal safety-net programs. Farmers can be saved by an increase in the retail price. Traditionally, a price increase is split three ways: between the farmer who produced the milk, the processor that packages the milk, and the retailer who puts it on a shelf. It is time that the retailer and processor respect their farmer partners and farmer-owners by passing the entire increase on to the farmers to keep them in business.