Monday, June 25, 2018

Add dairy to tariff wars Trump would have Walker's WI lose

I was expecting a Tweet with a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich, but Walker managed to serve this up today.

 2 hours ago2 hours agoMoreDeclared it throughout the state to celebrate Wisconsin's $43.4 billion/year dairy industry, including our delicious cheese. We’re proud to be America’s Dairyland. 🧀🧀🧀 

I guess we can conclude Trump's bestie Scott Walker does not read The New York Times.

Trump’s Trade War Could Shut Cheesemakers Out of Foreign Markets

With other countries raising tariffs to American products and signing trade deals without the United States, the American cheesemaker is increasingly standing alone.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post, but your readers know that Walker never gave a damn about any of those cheesemakers or dairy farmers unless they were part of out-of-state and multinational corporations. They will be fine even if all Wisconsin dairy products were shut-out of these markets. They, unlike local operations, can absorb short-term costs while they readjust their business models to whatever market opportunities available (or not available).

They come out ahead even if shut-out of these markets, because only a few mega corporate interests will weather this shake-out. What's left of their competitors will be foreced out and these business interests can by those dairy assets for pennies on a dollar.

Here's where rural people are entirely uninformed: Out-of-state multinational interests do not need them. Republican's corporate agenda, driven by these interests, are succeeding in putting them out-of-business. The markets for farm commodities will never miss the displaced farmers. Wisconsin's local agricultural interests are largely irrelevant under the stewardship of Walker, Paul Ryan, Dumb Ron Johnson, and now Trump. Consumers do not need the local agriculture business either, as the retail market is dominated by the same out-of-state multinational interests that continue to destroy what is left of Wisconsin's family farm heritage.

The people voted for all of this and have for decades. Public schools in Wisconsin are full of propaganda about agriculture that hides behind agriculture curriculum and extra-curricular activities. These programs promote the lie that family farming is a viable career path -- it is not. Most students in these programs are experiencing this. But even worse, the agriculture curriculum does not teach the truth about why the local farm economies are being destroyed. Students in Wisconsin are encouraged to pretend to be future farmers. They are spoon-fed the lie that family farms are the backbone of our economy. Nothing could be farther from the truth today and what you are posting today is just the end-game of decades of anti-small business policies.

It is not just agriculture, but the point is this: Only agriculture is still embedded in virtually every school district outside of a few urban centers. The curriculum is worse-than behind the time. Today, it promotes a lie.

The small family farm will never come back, because as corporate interests buy-up or develop the land they buy for pennies on a dollar from farmers that are force-out, there becomes less land available even if young adults could somehow raise the money to fund buy-backs.

The rest of the world does not need Wisconsin commodities, including cheese. The multinational corporations that control most food products don't need Wisconsin commodities either, as they increasingly can buy what they need from other multinational ag interests and CAFOs.

The graphic at this link clearly document the fact that almost all common consumer brands are owned by an oligopoly of 10 multinational corporations (and this graphic is a couple of years old -- situation is more consolidated now):

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/illusion-of-choice-consumer-brands/

More rural people need to carefully study that simple chart and then ask themselves 2 simple questions:

1. Who does Scott Walker and the republicon party work for?

2. Why do these global corporations need my farm or the local agriculture businesses in my community?

Anonymous said...

"But the president’s aggressive style has its supporters. A few miles out of town, past soybean fields and empty asphalt roads, Scott Ditter, a dairy farmer who sent milk from his cows to the Sartori factory that morning, defended the president’s actions. Mr. Trump was “really standing up for agriculture as a whole,” Mr. Ditter said.

Mr. Ditter said that Mr. Trump had the back of Wisconsin dairy farmers and that the president’s tariff threats were an effort to ultimately negotiate lower tariffs for American businesses.

“Maybe it’ll get the attention of these other countries,” Mr. Ditter said, as he stood in his field alongside a dozen dairy cows, each christened by his wife and their granddaughter with names like Julep, Chandelier, Thunder and Magic.

Mr. Ditter acknowledged that the retaliatory tariffs that Mexico put in place would probably hurt the Sartori Company as well as his farm, but said that he would adjust.

“Sometimes you have to suffer a little to get what you want,” he said. “To me, it ain’t mean. I think it’s just business.”

Suffer away idiot. You won't be milking in a year or two.

Jake formerly of the LP said...

Walker's solution to plummeting dairy prices that are putting family farmers out of business? "EAT MORE CHEESE!"

Seriously, that was all that clown could say on the subject yesterday. Can't get on the wrong side of the Big Ag and pro-CAFO donors at the Dairy Business Association, now can we?