WKBT La Crosse, WI-NewsChannel 8-Organic Farmers Struggling, U.S. Secretary of Ag. Tries to Give Answers

Reported by Cynthia Schweigert

Organic Farmers Struggling, U.S. Secretary of Ag. Tries to Give Answers

Area organic farmers held an emergency rally Thursday, and got their chance to speak out.

One of the biggest problems for farmers is low prices for their products. In many cases it's gotten so bad for area organic farmers that they're struggling to stay in business.

One more year...that's as far ahead as organic farmer Bruce Drinkman can plan. "Technically in legal terms, I'm bankrupt, through no fault of my own basically. I work 7 days a week, 365 days a year and my wife had to cash in her IRA so we could continue to operate this year, because the bank says we have no cash flow," said Drinkman.

That retirement money is going toward his final effort to stay in business. "We couldn't get money for seed so that's where the IRA money went, to buy seed for our fields to operate this year."

Many other area organic farmers are feeling a similar financial burden. At an emergency rally organic farmers highlighted the low prices they're being paid for their product, and worries that their market is being flooded by products that may not truly be organic.

"When people buy a carton of milk that shows a cow munching grass...I think there should be some enforcement by USDA to make sure that picture is true and it's not false advertising," said Jim Goodman, an area organic farmer.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stopped by the rally, he says the first step in getting farmers better prices is reducing the surplus of milk the United States.  "In particular 200 million pounds of nonfat dry milk we are distributing to school lunch programs and international aid," said Vilsack.

Vilsack says the outlook for farmers is hopeful, but when is still the question. "Our hope is that over the course of several months we see some improvement," said Vilsack.

And as for Bruce Drinkman.....hope is all that's left. "There's no faithless farmer, if you didn't have faith, you wouldn't get up and go to work in the morning," said Drinkman.

Secretary Vilsack assured people today that he is listening. He touched on his commitment to enforce the rules that decide if an animal's product can truly be labeled as organic.

Secretary Vilsack also says he's focusing on a long term stability plan for the price farmers get for their product, so small farmers aren't hurt as badly by low prices.