Photo: iLoveButter/Flickr

Susan McCrory

MDAR Commissioner Scott Soares is again logging miles on his car odometer. Earlier today, at the Hannaford’s supermarket in North Quincy, Soares spoke at an event attended by Massachusetts Dairy Farmer Lucinda Williams to promote a new initiative aimed at increasing public awareness of the formidable economic challenges facing the New England (and national) dairy industry while also providing a direct line of support. Before you read more about the Keep Local Farms program–and we hope you will–consider this: a gallon of milk costs the average dairy farmer about $1.80 to produce, but s/he gets paid about half that amount per gallon. What’s more, New England produces $12.2 billion in milk and purportedly generates more than $5 billion in economic activity.

Vermont is strong in dairy but, according to Commissioner Soares, Massachusetts dairy farmers make up an important part of that ‘same diary shed.’ The Keep Farms Local initiative is the newest mechanism through which Mass. consumers can demonstrate their support for local farmers, and it’s the newest arrow in the state’s quiver, following in the wake of the Dairy Revitalization Task Force and the Dairy Farm Preservation Act.

Want to act? Support the initiative by making a donation online, or at the cash register if you’re shopping at a Hannaford’s. The official press release states, and Soares confirmed, that those donated monies should eventually allow local farmers to brand their cartons with the “Keep Local Farms” logo, thereby allowing you to support such farms using your purchasing power. Meaning, buy their milk. Even if it’s 10 or 20 cents more per gallon.