Dairy farmers can’t catch a break from EPA

 

The US EPA wants US dairy farmers to regard the milk their cows produce as a hazardous substance. What's next: Haz-Mat placards on milk tankers? Photo © Todd Fitchette.

At the same time the US EPA is causing food prices around the globe to skyrocket as a result of policies to use corn as a fuel additive instead of an international food staple, one of the victims of the federal agency is in the cross hairs because of — what else — the food they create!

US dairy farmers are now being tasked to construct hazardous materials containment facilities and create disaster preparedness plans equivalent to those required by refineries and companies that store bulk hazardous materials. The premise: spilled milk could wind up in navigable water ways and cause an environmental disaster that millions of moms across America address in their kitchens on a daily basis with a few paper towels.

This falls on the heels of the EPA’s ruling that more ethanol needs to be in our gas tanks, rather than simply eating corn, which for centuries has been predominantly used for human and animal food. Because of federal policies aimed at converting corn into a fuel additive for America’s automobiles, dairy farmers in America are paying nearly $300 a ton for corn that just a few years ago was less than half that price and consumers all over the globe are paying double and triple the amount they once paid for corn-based food staples such as bread and tortillas.

What’s next from the EPA: Haz-Mat placards on milk tanker trucks? Or maybe the EPA could provide grants to American dairy farmers to help them raise more cats as a means of cleaning up the next environmental disaster when the milk tank ruptures and spews raw milk on the floor of the dairy parlor.

Related Articles

• EPA to Regulate Dairy Milk Spills as per Oil Spills (hotair.com)
• Ethanol’s ROI not just bad for MPG’s (Across the Back Fence)

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