No one from the Kentucky Dairy Development Council (KDDC) was expecting Senate Bill 47 to be heard in the Senate Agriculture Committee, much less have it pass through with a 9-2 vote, but it did. With enough Senators on board to pass it, we are close to making history with the first herdshare-friendly bill that provides protection from regulatory agencies!
The Kentucky Dairy Development Council (KDDC) requested to meet with a few of us working on Senate Bill 47 to discuss some concerns they had with the bill. So early this afternoon, KDDC, the president of a large dairy producer, and part of our team sat down in a meeting. Within the first ten minutes of the meeting they were threatening to leave the room, pointing fingers in some of our faces, and actual threats were made to “use every political power under my belt to stop what you are doing”.
Why? Because you are not allowed to operate outside of a corporate-controlled commodity market like the dairy industry. Big Dairy hates freedom.
The KDDC’s mission is:
“To educate, promote and represent dairy producers and foster an environment for growth of the Kentucky Dairy Industry.”
And represent the producers they did, but you should know that they are using your tax dollars to do it ( keep in mind that these producers import milk from out of state). Over the past two years, KDDC has received 1.9 million dollars of our money and is now using it to work against small family farms that contract with their neighbors privately.
In the early 1980’s Kentucky had over 20,000 dairies, in 2011, we only had 870. These numbers are a disgrace to Kentucky agriculture and KDDC should be embarrassed.
We have an opportunity to turn this around by making shared ownership of livestock protected in Kentucky. Senate Bill 47 will encourage small family farming, and allow the farmers to keep most of their hard earned money for themselves!
