{"id":819,"date":"2012-10-01T15:24:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T20:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/?p=819"},"modified":"2012-10-02T13:10:56","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T18:10:56","slug":"family-farm-defenders-presents-its-third-annual-wisconsin-%e2%80%9cland-of-10000-lagoons%e2%80%9d-awards-at-the-world-dairy-expo-celebrates-the-international-year-of-the-co-op-by-recognizing-the-wor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/?p=819","title":{"rendered":"Family Farm Defenders Presents its Third Annual Wisconsin \u201cLand of 10,000 Lagoons\u201d Awards at the World Dairy Expo! Celebrates the International Year of the Co-op by Recognizing the Worst Violators of Cooperative Principles in the Dairy Industry!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>For Immediate Release 10\/1\/12<\/div>\n
Contact:<\/div>\n
John E. Peck, FFD executive director\u00a0 #608-260-0900
\nJohn Kinsman, FFD president\u00a0 #608-986-3815<\/div>\n

\n<\/strong><\/div>\n
Wed. Oct. 3rd\u00a0 2:00 pm\u00a0 Main Entrance to Alliant Energy Center (off Rimrock Road\/Cty MM near the corner with John Nolen Dr.) in Madison, WI<\/div>\n
In recognition of 2012 being the International Year of the Co-op, Family Farm Defenders will be presenting special cow pie plaques at this year’s World Dairy Expo to the three worst U.S. dairy co-ops.<\/p>\n

“When it comes to consistently undermining cooperative principles, violating the Capper Volstead Act, and refusing to pay their own farmer members a fair parity price, it is really hard not to acknowledge the leadership of Foremost Farms, Dairy Farmers of America, and Land O Lakes,” noted John Peck. “These co-ops may have been built with the blood, sweat, and tears of family dairy farmers long ago to serve their own best interests, but that is no longer the case.\u00a0 In fact, these dairy co-ops have become just as unethical, corrupt, and greedy as their corporate counterparts like Kraft, Deans, and Nestle.”<\/p>\n

The first producer co-ops in the U.S. were actually founded by dairy farmers in CT and NY back in 1810 and today over 80% of the fluid milk in the U.S. is marketed through cooperatives.\u00a0 Unfortunately, not all co-ops are equal when it comes to respecting the law and acting for the mutual benefit of members.\u00a0 Many dairy co-ops have become less democratic and more unaccountable as managers answer to other interests, block vote for their own members, and engage in illegal price fixing behavior.<\/p>\n

For instance, Deans tried to buyout Foremost Farms to create a quasi-monopoly in fluid milk in the Midwest, a move that was fortunately blocked by the Justice Dept. in 2010.\u00a0 In 2008 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) levied a $12 million fine against Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) and its two top executives for rigging Class III milk markets at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Land ‘O Lakes has engaged in similar collusion, and is also promoting factory farm expansion, pushing dangerous biotechnologies like rBGH and RR alfalfa, and importing milk protein concentrate (MPC) from abroad for illegal use in dairy products to the detriment of its own farmers and consumers.<\/p>\n

“How long has Foremost Farms been masquerading as a cooperative?\u00a0 And how did its members agree to be bought out by private dairy giant like Deans,” asked John Kinsman, longtime dairy farmer and president of Family Farm Defenders.\u00a0 “Eighty years ago Hillpoint Co-op Creamery was organized by farmers with a processing plant and headquarters in the village of Hillpoint, less than six miles from my farm.\u00a0 Later it became Wisconsin Dairies.\u00a0 Certain corrupt executives, though, fired responsible employees who exposed short butter weights, milk watering, false sampling, and other illegal activities, which all led to a messy criminal investigation.\u00a0 Later Wisconsin Dairies became Foremost Farms, and nothing has really changed.\u00a0 In fact, in a\u00a0 referendum about a decade ago on the future of the National Dairy Board, Foremost was caught bloc voting for several hundred more patrons than they actually had.”<\/p>\n

The winners of last year’s “Land of 10,000 Lagoons” awards presented at the World Dairy Expo were the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT).\u00a0 Both AFACT and ALEC had major roles in orchestrating state legislation and manipulating public opinion to the benefit of corporate agribusiness and factory farming in Wisconsin.\u00a0 Sadly, AFACT dissolved itself shortly after receiving last year’s award, and many members of ALEC are now reconsidering their participation in that controversial organization.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Following the “Land of 10,000 Lagoons” award ceremony, Wisconsin citizens will have an opportunity to speak out about how they have been affected by environmental pollution, health threats, political corruption, and other problems emanating from factory farm expansion statewide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Immediate Release 10\/1\/12 Contact: John E. Peck, FFD executive director\u00a0 #608-260-0900 John Kinsman, FFD president\u00a0 #608-986-3815 Wed. Oct. 3rd\u00a0 2:00 pm\u00a0 Main Entrance to Alliant Energy Center (off Rimrock Road\/Cty MM near the corner with John Nolen Dr.) in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions\/827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}