He said he built it on his own to protect the stream, and it works well unless there's a five-inch rain. Woiwode also said Lettinga sold 145 acres, which the farm needs for manure disposal, a contention that is wrong for one thing, Kevin said, and none of the Sierra Club's business, for another. The nutrient needs of that soil show it doesn't need manure, and besides, we have other land, including 500 acres we rent, that does need it. That just shows that the Sierra Club doesn't know what it's talking about, and besides, selling property is our business, and nobody else's. If the attack on the Lettinga's and other farms are about stopping so-called factory or corporate farms, Kevin said, the solution may be simple.
Family farmers have to unify and bring prices back to profitable levels.
But we're getting the same price for milk we got in the 1970s. With that in mind, I've never been able to understand why farmers won't organize. That's the only way they'll get any power to change things. Until that happens, Lettinga is prepared to fight the Sierra Club on his own. His farm's survival depends on it.