Farmers Feeling Effects Of Power Crisis

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Farmers Feeling Effects Of Power Crisis

Task Force Hopes To Find Solution To Problems Plaguing Industry SACRAMENTO, 10:06 p.m. EST January 15, 2001 -- The effects of California's power crisis can be felt well beyond its neon cities.

The energy crunch has taken such a toll on the $28 billion industry that the Farm Bureau is forming a crisis task force to help growers find relief.

The diary farmers have been hit particularly hard by the crisis.

At the Hilmar Cheese Company, it takes 10 megawatts of electricity to run the plant every day.

"The natural gas cost has gone up dramatically since December 1999. It's up 500 percent," Ted Struckmeyer of Hilmar Cheese Company said.

The Western United Dairymen have asked the state to approve an emergency 2 cent a gallon price increase for milk to help them pay their soaring energy bills.

"We can't go anyplace. Our prices are regulated and set. Unless things somehow straighten (out and we get) more for our commodity, then agriculture is really going to lose," dairy farmer Vernon Wickstrom said.

Under current law, the state doesn't factor in utility costs when it sets farm milk prices.

Dairymen can't pass along cost increases to customers due to spikes in electricity, natural gas or diesel fuel.

The 25-member California Farm Bureau task force will help growers address the power problem among others and draft an action plan. "I still think there's a good future for farming in California, but we have to address these issues quickly or people will be hurt and won't be able to come back," Vito Chieza of the Stanislaus Farm Bureau said.

The task force will meet at the end of the month in Sacramento.

http://www.channel2000.com/sh/news/california/stories/news-california-20010115-200110.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 16, 2001

Answers

"We can't go anyplace. Our prices are regulated and set. Unless things somehow straighten (out and we get) more for our commodity, then agriculture is really going to lose," dairy farmer Vernon Wickstrom said.

Yet another failure of regulation. The state limits the income but not the expenses. Sound familiar?

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), January 16, 2001.


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