The pressure is on in Washington to persuade Congress to ratify the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, a price fixing scheme aimed at taxing milk drinkers to increase returns to dairy farmers, the struggling and the prosperous alike.
Dairy farming is vitally important to the Vermont economy and to the state's character.
In 1993 Vermont dairy farmers produced more milk than in any year in the state's history. Unfortunately for friends of the small family dairy farm of legend, the milk is being produced on 1,959 active farms, compared to 3,688 active farms in 1975. As in every market, there are some very efficient producers and some that are not so efficient. In support of this last scheme the Vermont legislature has done astonishing things, often in the dark of night. First, in 1989, it ratified Vermont's participation in the cartel scheme.