To subscribe to Agweek, click here. The first is efficiency.
Efficiency is good, necessary and evident.
The fact that many can produce milk for one-half this amount indicates great improvements in efficiency, but not in farm profits. Efficiency always is rammed down the farmer's throat, but never seems to apply to the rest of the food chain. In 1980, dairy farmers received 52 percent of the consumer dollar, but now that figure is 30 percent or less. I suspect that processors and retailers also have become more efficient, leading to huge profits, which they use to consolidate their power over us. The second one-sided story concerns overproduction.