<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">Dairy producers
are dumping thousands of gallons of milk every day. In Wisconsin, 50% of the
state’s dairy products<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.cbs58.com/news/not-a-good-feeling-covid-19-taking-a-toll-on-wisconsin-dairy-farmers" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">have nowhere to go</span></a><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span>while typical buyers such as schools
and restaurants remain shut down and unable to purchase milk and cheese.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">In
Pennsylvania, where schools buy up to 40% of dairy sales by volume, the
pandemic has<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.pennlive.com/business/2020/04/crying-about-spilled-milk-coronavirus-pandemic-is-just-what-the-doctor-didnt-order-for-states-dairy-farms.html" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">beleaguered an already-stressed
industry</span></a><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span>that lost 470
farms in 2019. Some large dairies have started<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/05/25/efforts-underway-to-get-food-that-was-going-to-be-dumped-from-us-farms-to-the-needy/" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">donating milk directly to food banks</span></a><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span>rather than dumping it, but this has
taken months to happen with the help of nonprofit intermediaries. Such
arrangements are patches, not systemic fixes for gaps in a brittle supply
chain.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black"> </span></b></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">Supermarkets
can’t sell all the milk</span></b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:7.5pt 0in 15pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">Milk waste and donations are signs that supply chains lack
resilience—the ability to bounce back from stresses, the way a rubber band
returns to its normal shape after being stretched. Milk dumping is more a
reflection of broken supply chains than of trends in supply or demand. The fact
that the U.S. has too much milk for some places and too little for others
highlights weaknesses of conventional food supply chains amid shocks such as
COVID-19.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">One farm, one
economy</span></b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">How can this
system be rewired to make it more adaptable?</span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">Here in New
Jersey, farms are the<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports/reports/fnlo0220.pdf" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">fourth-smallest</span></a><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span>in the United States, averaging 76
acres. The Garden State’s dairy sector is particularly small, making up only 50
farms and ranking 44th of 50 states in<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.americandairy.com/dairy-farms/dairy-facts/state-stats.stml" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">total milk production</span></a>. But
despite their small operations, <b>we see
New Jersey’s<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.honeybrookorganicfarm.com/" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">local entrepreneurial farmers</span></a><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span>as models of a game-changing strategy.</b></span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">Rather than
selling their milk to large dairy processing companies, these<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://doublebrookfarm.com/" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">vertically structured local farms</span></a><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span>raise cows, process milk and other
foods, and sell them directly to consumers at farm-operated markets and
restaurants. Unsold items return to farms as feed or fertilizer.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-indent" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:20pt;line-height:12.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;color:black">This system is
highly efficient, even during the current pandemic, because farmers and their
customers represent the entire supply chain. <b>Customer demand for locally produced food is<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://njmonthly.com/articles/eat-drink/table-hopping/farms-csas-coronavirus-nj/" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">surging throughout New Jersey</span></a><span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span>and the<span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/coronavirus-demand-for-local-farms-157538" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:black">United States</span></a></b>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.<br>President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy<br><a href="http://emergentdiplomacy.org" target="_blank">emergentdiplomacy.org</a></div><div>Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA</div><div></div><div><a href="mailto:merlelefoff@gmail.com" target="_blank">merlelefkoff@gmail.com</a><br>mobile: (303) 859-5609<br>skype: merle.lelfkoff2<br></div><div>twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff<br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>