Support your local farmers

The letter below is from a local farmer and I hope you will pass the word about how this company is screwing with our Maine Milk Producers. The letter is written by Fred Sherburne of Dexter...
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“You can feel good about Hood”… NOT!

This slogan has brought smiles to the faces of young and old alike for several generations. I remember as a youngster, in the early 1960's, my dad shipped milk on the “Boston Market.” The milk actually traveled less than 20 miles to the H.P. Hood cottage cheese plant in Newport, Maine…The best cottage cheese in the Northeast…The biggest producer of the same on the East coast. My 4th grade class and my 4-H club both took field trips there. We were given Hood Dixie Cups with individual wooden “spoons” taped to the tops which told us, “You can feel good about Hood.”

In the late 1960's, our farm switched to the Maine Market.” Maine had a unique pricing system linked directly to consumer demand. There were several bottlers in the Bangor area, the bigger ones being Grant's Dairy, Smiley's, Footman's and Pleasant hill Dairy, probably more. Our milk went to Pleasant Hill, about 40 miles from the farm. These dairies tried to bottle about 90% of what producers sent there. The price was about 1/3 higher on the “Maine Market than on the “Boston Market,” $16.00 compared to $12.)) per hundred weight (CWT), or about $1.00 per gallon at the farm compared to $1.50…a big incentive to be on the “Maine Market.”

A similar difference today is offered by the “Organic Market” versus the conventional market. Producers of organic milk receive about 30-50% more per gallon or CWT as do “conventional” farmers. To do this, we have to adhere to strict rules as to how our land is treated, using no chemical A.K.A. synthetic fertilizers or crop protection products. Our animals must be allowed to have access to green grass and sunshine, no unnatural medications, hormones or stimulants. It is not all about the money. It is a philosophy, a paradigm of returning to a simpler, more stress-free life for the family, farm and future.

In 2005, Mark McKusick convinced H.P. Hood to look to Maine for a source of organic milk. Two companies, Horizon Organics and Organic Valley Coop., had been in the state since the mid-1990's, paying roughly $19 CWT for about 10 years. Mark could see that a third party would stir up some competition and, perhaps, make a price advantage for Maine organic producers. It worked. Our farm started shipping organic milk to Hood in July of 2006 at a price of $24.50 CWT, or about $5.00 over what it had been for roughly ten years. More increases were promised and some came. The other processors had to bring their prices in line with H.P. Hood, who stated that they wanted to be the “price leader in the organic market.” They wanted most of their milk to come from Maine. They stuck their neck out at Mark's urging, and went to Washington County to pick up four family farms and also to Aroostook County, doing the same. It wasn't viable, but it would be; the potential was there.

Aaron Bell of Tide Mill Organic Farm in Edmunds, ME was H.P. Hood's poster child for this new generation of family farms. With a history of six generations on the same land, this Downeast farm had not sold milk since Aaron was born. The farm started selling to Hood the day Aaron's son was born, bringing hope to aspiring farmers in Washington County where there hadn't been a dairy farm in nearly thirty years.

In February of 2009, H.P. Hood, in a certified letter, informed Aaron that his organic milk contract would not be renewed…nor will the contracts of the other Washington County farms…nor will those of the farms in Aroostook County. Eight family farms currently find themselves without a market when H.P. Hood had gone after them as producers, promising everything but a termination letter. “You can feel good about Hood”…NOT!

Less than a month later, two other producers in Central Maine were notified that their contracts would be terminated on October 1st, 2009, a six month notice. Mark McKusick and Richard Larry, the two producers who had worked so hard to get Hood into the area now find themselves cut off. They are very forthright with their opinions and everybody knows where they stand. They had not been quiet regarding Hood's about-face to its farmers.

Our farm was wooed by Hood to renew our contract with them in July of 2008, but at a lower price than my earlier contract had paid. I chose to go with Organic Valley and terminated my relationship with Hood.

H.P. Hood has gone back on its word to the organic family farms of Maine. They told us a story to get us to sign with them. Once we signed a contract, when renewal came up, they wanted us to be puppies, to “rollover” and sacrifice for the good of H.P. Hood.

Hood's organic is labeled under the trade name of “Stoneyfield Milk.” For the solidarity of the Maine daily industry, Maine farmers as a group, and the citizens of this great state, please join me and my family as we organize to boycott all Stoneyfield milk and H.P. Hood labeled products until our voices are heard.

Fred Sherburne
Maine Dairy Farmer

Dad making music

 

Sometimes the best times are home with family and friends!!!
Dad has broken out his harmonica and been playing at our little home parties along with friends with guitars, the washboard, spoons and even the bass champagne bottle!
Have around 10 or so people and laugh until your cheeks hurt.