| March 8, 2017 -- March 9: “CWA Program” Program: Janet, Ref: Dan
March 23: “Maple Syrup” with guest speaker. Program: Jim, Ref: Lisa
Meetings in January: January 30: Tonight we listened to a podcast from the New England News Collaborative titled “When the Milk Runs Dry”. “Dairy farms have been folding at an alarming rate. According to a new documentary fi lm, “Forgotten Farms,” New England has lost 10,000 dairy farms in the last 50 years, and many of the remaining farms are struggling. John Dankosky spoke with Sarah Gardener, producer of the fi lm and Associate Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College.”1 This podcast is quite informative and here are some of the highlights: Despite that the local food movements that have been celebrated it obscures the fact that much of New England Agriculture is under threat. The bulk of the food that is produced in New England is still produced by dairy farms and they are under threat because of historically low milk prices. All dairy farms in New England have been losing money in the last 12 months. The Agri-Mark Coop has been losing 10 farms a month because they are going out of business. There are a few farms that are making money because they are tied directly to a restaurant while others are just hanging on because states like Massachusetts offer tax abates on their homesteads, etc. A lot of farmers are making less $10,000.00 per year.
Here is the link to this podcast: https://nenc.news/podcast/episode-23-backedge/
Link to the new documentary film: http://forgottenfarms.org/newsorg/news-press/ Footnote: From https://nenc.news/podcast/episode-23-backedge/ |
