That phrase was the mantra of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for decades. It was a message of support for corporate farms and a middle finger to family farms and small agriculture everywhere.
In the Obama Administration this philosophy seemed to be in abeyance, but now it is back in full force. U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue recently said about small dairy farmers at the World Dairy Expo “In America, the big get bigger and the small get out.” He was not saying this in a critical way.
The president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, Darin Von Ruden, whose family runs a 50-cow organic diary farm, said of Perdue’s speech: “The mindset that has been pushed on farmers to continually grow is ultimately pushing them out of business as overproduction forces market prices down.”
I also have a statement in response to Secretary Perdue. If all the milk that I have milked by hand were put in a swimming pool, it would be enough for you to swim in, or even drown.
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