Milk board hears dairy dilemmas
BUTLER TWP — There are 28 remaining dairy farms in Butler County, and judging by the 35 people who attended a listening session Wednesday night with the state milk board, many of them showed up.
The state Milk Marketing Board traveled to Butler County Community College to describe the new mission that came with two new board members, as well as to listen to the concerns and suggestions of the struggling dairy farmers in and around the county.
Rob Barley, chairman of the three-person, Harrisburg-based board, explained that instead of simply setting minimum milk prices that processors must adhere to, the board has taken on the work of helping the dairy farmers of Pennsylvania.
“We are trying to be advocates for the dairy industry,” Barley said.
One of the board's main goals is to increase the demand for milk by educating consumers on the health benefits of whole milk.
He likened the milk market to that of eggs, which were deemed unhealthy many years ago. Today, a decade later, doctors' recommendations allow consuming up to two eggs per day; and eggs are considered among the healthiest proteins available.
“We're seeing that (market fluctuation) in milk, too,” Barley said.
Carol Hardbarger, the consumer representative on the Milk Marketing Board, said the board is reaching out to dairy farmers, retailers, distributors and consumers to try and improve the milk industry.
She said the board has entered the realm of social media and has started a newsletter that comes out every other month.
Hardbarger said the board is working on a program to increase the demand for milk in which retailers would sell certain milk at a discounted price. Consumers would then buy a container of milk at the regular price and another of the same size at the discount price, and the discounted milk would go to a food bank.
“Buy-one-get-one is a way to sell twice the milk, and people are not paying as much for the donated item,” Hardbarger said.
She said the board wants to work with the state Department of Agriculture to ensure only local milk with the “PA Preferred” sticker is included in the BOGO program.
Another goal of the board, Hardbarger said, is to have whole milk removed from the calorie count of school meals so that school districts can offer milk and chocolate milk to students and staff at times other than lunch.
Federal law now permits skim and 1 percent white and chocolate milk, which many farmers say students throw away.
“We've lost a whole generation of kids,” said Jim Marburger, president of Marburger Farm Dairy in Forward Township.
Marburger said that in the decade since the Obama administration mandated skim milk to accompany school meals, and even now that 1 percent has been added to the law, students toss their milk in the trash.
“They call it chalk water,” Marburger said.
Other farmers pointed out that machines selling sugar-filled sports drinks and sodas began to appear in schools when the skim milk edict took effect. The farmers agree that those drinks, and not whole milk, largely contributed to the obesity epidemic in the U.S.
“You need to work on that,” Marburger said of getting whole milk back into school buildings.
While Barley agreed with Marburger “100 percent,” he said whole milk costs a cent or two more per single-serving container than skim or 1 percent, which might be the deal-breaker for cash-strapped school districts.
“We're behind you that we need to get whole milk back in the schools,” Barley said.
Eric Grabman of Ohio, who is the Marburger Dairy farm inspector, said he distributes chocolate milk to his Boy Scout troops and they fight over it.
“They say, 'Why can't I get this in school?'” Grabman said.He recalled that local farmers once sold milk to jails and prisons in the region, but now food service contractors get that milk from other states.Kathy Hartzell, also a county milk producer, suggested that only PA Preferred milk be available for the state Supplemental and Nutrition Assistance Program.“We will take that into consideration,” Barley said. “We have been focused on school milk.”Clearfield Township dairy farmer Roy Bergbigler recommended the board institute a quota system for milk.“If there is more to be produced than can be processed 24/7, don't you think there's too much coming in?” Bergbigler said.He said a quota system would determine how much each farm needs to produce.Barley said the board could take a look at Bergbigler's suggestion, but fears having a quota system in just one state would cause an interstate issue.“It would have to be a federal program,” he said.Commissioner Kevin Boozel, who attended the board's listening session with fellow county Commissioner Kim Geyer, said the plight of the county's dairy farmers has been discussed at many meetings he's attended.“This is a problem that's multisystemic,” Boozel said.He took the milk board to task for only listening and not acting to quickly help the struggling farmers in the county and region.“We want to help the farmers,” said Boozel, who grew up on a farm. “I haven't heard a clear, concise way to do that.”Barley replied that the board's objective is to get suggestions from farmers and take them back to Harrisburg for study and advocacy.“I want to do what's right for the dairy industry,” Barley replied. “We're here to listen and learn.”Boozel urged the board to come up with immediate measures to help the dairy farmers before more lose their operations.“These folks need direction,” Boozel said.Geyer asked the board if they collaborate with any of the many dairy-related entities throughout the state to improve the situation of dairy farmers.Barley said he met with the president of the Dairy Promotion Board as well as state senators.“We're doing as much of that as possible,” he said.Geyer recommended collaborating with other organizations statewide to get whole milk back into schools.Longtime board member Jim Van Blarcom told the audience that they should call and write their U.S. congressmen and senators to encourage them to vote for a milk exemption for school lunches.“We need an exemption,” Van Blarcom said. “That's something we can all do now.”After the listening session, Geyer and Boozel talked to the farmers in attendance about the milk situation.“There were a lot of good ideas and perspectives shared by the people of Butler County,” Geyer said of the event.She expressed frustration that state law largely prohibits the Milk Marketing Board from many collaborations and activities that could help farmers.“Everyone is sitting here asking, 'Who's advocating for us?'” Geyer said.Hardbarger, who took copious notes throughout the evening, promised to stay in touch with those in the Western Pennsylvania dairy industry.“We want to do what we can to help the dairy farmer,” she said.
