The compact, which was established in 1996 and currently includes the six New England states, establishes minimum prices to be paid to farmers for class I milk, the type sold for direct consumption, as opposed to milk processed into butter, cheese, yogurt and other products. The price is currently set at $1.50 per gallon.

The draft state budget, proposed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee, cuts Massachusetts from the pact together with a $3 million dollar subsidy to dairy farmers. Any additional subsidies would have to be passed in future budgets. Massachusetts farmers received $4.6 million from the compact from July 1997 to December 1999.

The compact has not stopped the decline of dairy farms in Massachusetts. In 1950 there were 6,760 dairy farms in the state. In the two years of the compact, the number has dropped from 334 to 290. Despite this, farmers see the compact as some protection from the workings of the market, which has ravaged dairy producers in recent years.

In an interview at the rally, Wayne Facey Jr., a dairy farmer from Leyden and executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Dairy Farmers, explained that the compact "balances our income. If we were able to maintain a $14 cut [per hundredweight], we would be financially stable. Without the compact, prices vary between $11 and $17."

Pete Williams, who milks 40 cows in Shelburn, explained, "This is the future of dairy in the northeast."

Dairy farms in Massachusetts average 67 milking cows and 418 acres of land. This is much smaller than the average in other parts of the country. Milk costs farmers an average of $16.77 per hundredweight to produce, but sells for only $13.88.

Speakers at the rally included representatives of the Audubon Society, Public Interest Research Group, Environmental League, Conservation Law Foundation, and several members of the state assembly and senate. The only farm organization to have a speaker was the Farm Bureau, which represents capitalist farmers.

Jonathan Healy, state commissioner of food and agriculture, and Bob Durand, state secretary of environmental affairs, are on record opposing the proposal to withdraw. It was reported at the rally that an amendment has been filed in the state assembly to strike out the proposal to withdraw from the compact.

However, the state senate voted May 25 to begin the withdrawal of Massachusetts from the compact. Gov. Paul Celluci said he would veto that measure if it makes it into the final state budget.

Martin Boyers is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.  
 
 
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