Even in ag superpower New Zealand, it's the little farmer who typically holds up expanded food production

ARTICLE: "'Saudi Arabia of Milk' Hits Production Limits: New Zealand Dairy Thirsts for Capital, A Big Issue in Food," by Patrick Barta, Wall Street Journal, 8 May 2008, p. A1.

The industry wants to raise $1 billion internationally, but the hold-up is getting 11,000 individual farmers in co-ops to agree. Big trick is getting independence-minded farmers to accept more outside say in how they do things.

New Zealand risks plenty by not being able to take advantage of this rising global demand, because if it doesn't, then others will—eventually.

The revealing quote from a farmer's union: "Farmers didn't build up this bloody great asset to throw it away."

Saudi Arabia of Milk you say? In more ways than one. Same narrow-minded fear of outside capital, so a preference to underutilize and dominate a smaller pool that build up a larger pool that makes everyone richer while meeting and sustaining rising international demand.

Why the love of small farms? It's all about jobs and maintaining small towns.

Sounds like the India of Milk—in love with the village.

I say we pump up California and Wisconsin and crush the competition globally.

Comments

[Chad Laux]

I work w/ Ag. in my research to expand quality management systems all the time. Our hook? Adopting QMS means more $$$, more options, etc. (ISO 9000 is a ruleset after all). Interesting fact from the ISO world survey: production agriculture is the fastest sector for adoption w/ 50x growth in 5 years. Someone thinks it's a good idea.

[Robert Kawaratani]

Water is a significant hurdle for California. Irrigation for fodder is one of the largest uses of irrigation water and that's in short supply in California given the competition between farms and urban areas for water. I assume that its not a problem for Wisconsin.