Jim,

I will try to put some graphs together. Sometimes pictures tell a better story than just words. The other side is confused about what is actually taking place here. They talk about this age-old milk program that has all of these statutory rights and ignore the reality of what is actually taking place. We have a program that was supposed to have been terminated by equalization some 35 years ago, and unfortunately, these dairymen who got all of this free quota have been using that money to buy influence and to buy out our cows and land. They purchase the best semen, redo their facilities to become more efficient, and they can buy all of the best ground, and they do it with our money. One of the greatest harms done to us is our lack of ability to compete with these quota dairymen.

There is not one industry in America that has the entire industry get taxed for $157 million in one year, from 750 dairymen, and turn around and hand that money over to 350 dairymen. I repeat, our government is an agent for our milk industry to hand over every month $13 million, and we give that to 350 different dairymen. Over a billion dollars was paid to these 350 dairymen since 2018. This did not come out of a milk pooling plan, but it came from our producer account that we have with our processors. These quota holders, who received their quota for free, have in turn passed it down to their kids and grandkids, etc.

The quota holders have accumulated over $5 billion to be spent on buying attorneys and politicians, and they filled an advisory board with 14 quota holders and 1 non-quota holder, which proceeded to make rules such as, if you want to change anything, you need to go through this kangaroo board called the PRB. I have yet to run across any of my friends or just plain citizens that I have run into who believe that an industry that is made up of 55% non-quota and 45% quota would have a board that is 14 quota and 1 non-quota. The harm done there is that they have not only voted down our petitions and hardships without metrics and discussions on facts presented, but it also causes great harm to the human psyche, which becomes hardened when watching.

They misstated many things in their claims. One was the distortion of the referendum that put in the QIP. It was 87% of those who voted, and not 87% of the dairymen, who voted for the QIP. It was more like 57% that voted in the referendum. We thought we were voting for the federal order, and we thought they would have a five-year reapproval. The voting down of our petitions did harm to our belief in our government and democracy, because the harm was not only about money; it was shocking to witness such corruption, and it was hard to believe in the system that was being used by Karen Ross and the PRB members. The harm that it causes within the industry itself is that we are not a united front, and probably never will be because of this tax. I have paid in personally over $3 million since I got into the business back in 2011. Three million dollars I had to hand over to those favored 300, only to receive a big fat nothing in return. Those lawyers can write all of that doublespeak about nothing, but they will not answer what they are doing with our milk every day. If giving $3 million over a 15-year period and getting absolutely nothing in return is not the most absurd transfer of wealth, then I don’t know what is. It has been my worst pleasure to ever know.

536 hard-working non-quota families are going out of business and losing their dream so a minority of dairymen can get richer still. This is not morally right or good for our industry. Imagine coming home to their families and telling them they had to sell their cows.

Craig Gordon