[FRIAM] Good news for Nick re: virus

[Merle Lefkoff]

Dairy producers are dumping thousands of gallons of milk every day. In
Wisconsin, 50% of the state’s dairy products have nowhere to go
<https://www.cbs58.com/news/not-a-good-feeling-covid-19-taking-a-toll-on-wisconsin-dairy-farmers>
 while typical buyers such as schools and restaurants remain shut down and
unable to purchase milk and cheese.



In Pennsylvania, where schools buy up to 40% of dairy sales by volume, the
pandemic has beleaguered an already-stressed industry
<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>
 that lost 470 farms in 2019. Some large dairies have started donating milk
directly to food banks
<https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/05/25/efforts-underway-to-get-food-that-was-going-to-be-dumped-from-us-farms-to-the-needy/>
 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.



*Supermarkets can’t sell all the milk*

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.

*One farm, one economy*



How can this system be rewired to make it more adaptable?



Here in New Jersey, farms are the fourth-smallest
<https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports/reports/fnlo0220.pdf>
 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 total milk production
<https://www.americandairy.com/dairy-farms/dairy-facts/state-stats.stml>.
But despite their small operations, *we see New Jersey’s local
entrepreneurial farmers <http://www.honeybrookorganicfarm.com/> as models
of a game-changing strategy.*



Rather than selling their milk to large dairy processing companies,
these vertically
structured local farms <https://doublebrookfarm.com/> 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.



This system is highly efficient, even during the current pandemic, because
farmers and their customers represent the entire supply chain. *Customer
demand for locally produced food is surging throughout New Jersey
<https://njmonthly.com/articles/eat-drink/table-hopping/farms-csas-coronavirus-nj/>
and
the United States
<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/coronavirus-demand-for-local-farms-157538>*
.



-- 
Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
emergentdiplomacy.org
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
merlelefkoff at gmail.com <merlelefoff at gmail.com>
mobile:  (303) 859-5609
skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff
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