Ten cents of every pint of milk students at the University of Vermont and Harvard University buy will be passed on to dairy farmers. UVM launched its Keep Local Farms fund-raising campaign on Monday. Harvard joined the program on Oct. 19.
The slight price hike is part of a fund-raising and marketing campaign to raise money and the profile of New England dairy farmers who have seen significant declines in income since milk prices plummeted at the beginning of 2009.
Right now, dairy farmers in the region are making $1.10 a gallon for their milk; it costs them $1.80 to produce it, according to Vermont Agency of Agriculture statistics.
Diane Bothfeld, deputy commissioner of the agency, anticipates that the two university programs will generate $800 to $900 a month for the Keep Local Farms program, which is run by the New England Family Dairy Farms Cooperative.
The program also has a Web site, http://www.keeplocalfarms.org/, that encourages people to make direct donations to the cooperative. For $30, donors get a Keep Local Farms bumper sticker; for $250 “dairy defenders” get a bumper sticker and a T-shirt. Tote bags are available for a $100 donation. (Contributors should know, however, that these donations are not tax-deductible, as NEFDFC is not an authorized 501C3, IRS public charity.) So far, contributors have donated $5,000.
Farmers throughout the region will receive payments from the pooled proceeds twice a year.
Bothfeld says at the moment the money Keep Local Farms generates is a drop in the bucket compared with the mounting debt farmers are facing.
“It’s pennies back for farmers right now,” Bothfeld says. “But it’s a brand new program. We have to build it.”
Bothfeld says with Harvard and UVM signing on, the program is starting to generate momentum. She hopes to create a network of participating universities and colleges throughout New England will come on board in 2010.
