The Dairy Crisis is Hurting Organic and Grassfed Farms in New York

On January 17, more than 30 organic dairy farmers—most of whom sell their milk to Organic Valley or Maple Hill—gathered at a farm near Syracuse, New York. The “emergency meeting” was called without the processors’ knowledge, and attendees discussed who had lost contracts, who had seen trucks from Texas hauling in cheap organic milk, and falling prices. “The reason we had it was just to keep each other informed,” said Dave Nichols, a grassfed organic dairy farmer who sells to Maple Hill. “None of us really knew what was going on on the other side of the fence. The biggest thing we came away with was a new list of names, phone numbers, and addresses.”