The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) hosted a press teleconference yesterday to address the structural difficulties keeping farmers from meeting their cost of production.

CDC board member and California Farmers Union President Joaquin Contente joined Dairy farmers from Pennsylvania, New York and Wisconsin on the call. Each had a few minutes to explain the dire situations in their home states.

 "There is a tremendous amount of pain going through these producers when they receive their milk checks and see their feed costs," Contente pointed out.

Contente went on to say "...we've got a broken system in the United States in the dairy industry that's causing a tremendous amount of consolidation. A lot of people think that the milk production will go away, and I disagree with that. Milk production will not go way. Milk production will continue regardless of what's happening. What will happen is you're going to see the average smaller dairy producers disappear and these large, super [dairies] taking over the industry. If you want to see how this could happen, just look at the poultry industry; in California, we have 1 chicken producer.... If we contiune this path, it's going to be a matter of time before there are just a few dairy producers in California."

All interested parties are invited to listen to the recorded version of yesterday's teleconference which is available by calling: 719-457-0820; and then putting in the replay confirmation code: 74971262 followed by the # symbol. This information can be shared with reporters that would like to listen. There will be a followup press release/summary of comments released on Monday. CDC and California Farmers Union would like to thank Kathy Ozer, Director of the National Family Farm Coalition for this opportunity to express our dire situation here in California.