Farmers worldwide have the same goal: to be paid fairly for their products and have their voices heard. Spanish farmers Javier Fatas Campillos and Luid Portilla traveled over 4,000 miles to meet with Midwest farmers and share the challenges of farming in Europe.
As they visited farms and gave presentations across Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, they discovered that U.S. farmers share their goals of wanting to make a decent living and harbor regulatory and economic concerns.
Organized by Family Farm Defenders, the Solidarity Tour featured stops in Fond du Lac County at Schmitz’s East Branch Dairy, a 200-head dairy farm run by brothers Tony and Aaron Schmitz, Fondy Fruits and More a produce farm owned by Bill and Lynda Zeleske, MilkSource’s Rosendale Dairy, one of the largest dairy operations in Wisconsin. They also visited Little Brown Cow Cheese owned by the Wilterdink family in Sheboygan County.
“We see people with different farming models and we see both the virtues and threats from each of these models,” said Portilla who raises dairy sheep and cattle in the northern region of Cantabria, Spain. “We need to protect family farming and Americans have this in common with us in Europe.”
“We’re being choked by regulations”
Both Portilla and Campillos have become immersed in the wave of farmer protests across Europe against unfair prices and trade policies. While the grievances vary from country to country, Portilla says the underlying complaint across the continent is the same.
“First there was the issue of low prices and low profitability for farms,” said Portilla. “And now we’re protesting against extensive bureaucracy like the European environmental policy that is applied in a way that doesn’t consider different territories. We’re being choked by regulations.”
Campillos, a grain farmer from Cadrete, Spain says the burden imposed by government and EU regulations makes it hard for farmers to make a living, especially when farm income is already facing a sharp decline.
“We receive some subsidies from the European policy but from what we receive, 30 percent of that we have to dedicate to adhering to regulations,” Campillos said. “With low prices, ultimately we end up spending more than what we get from farming by adhering to these regulations. We want regulations, but the kinds of regulations that take into consideration different territorial qualities.”
According to Politico, “prices paid to farmers fell by more than 10 percent from 2022 to 2023” in 11 EU countries.
Both U.S. and Spain are losing farms and dairy farmers
A loss of profitability and financial hardship have caused many farms to shutter in the U.S. and Spain. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of farms in the U.S. declined by 141,733 or 7 percent, according to USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture. As of February 2023, there were 20,124 dairy farms across the country. According to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP), Wisconsin lost 455 dairy farms in 2023 a loss of more than one dairy farm per day last year.
Portilla, who is also an award-winning master cheesemaker, says Spain loses three dairy farms a day.
“Over the past 20 years, my region has lost 12,000 farms. During the pandemic, the price that I received on my farm for milk dropped by half,” Portilla said. “With these low prices, no young people are coming into dairy until recently. My uncle who lives in the city has double the purchasing power than I do, a farmer who lives in the countryside.”
According to Elcano, the workforce in Spain is rapidly aging with 41 percent of active farmers over the age of 65. Just 4 percent of the country’s farmers are under 35. The average age of the Wisconsin farmer is nearly 57, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. About 10 percent of Wisconsin farmers like Tony Schmitz of Fond du Lac are under 35.
Schmitz told his Spanish visitors that after graduating from college, his parents urged him to work off the farm for a year or two before deciding to return. After working for a national cereal manufacturer in Minnesota, Schmitz returned to Schmitz’s East Branch Dairy in 2019 after the untimely death of his father, Dave Schmitz at the age of 64.
While his mom, Mary Schmitz, retains ownership of the operation, Tony and his younger brother, Aaron, are in charge of the day-to-day operations.
Throughout the years the Schmitz family has hosted visitors on their town of Fond du Lac farm. Friday’s visit was the first time they welcomed international guests from Spain.
“It was interesting to learn about the differences between our countries, especially when it comes to milk pricing,” Schmitz said. “But it’s also important to note the similarities. There are a lot of ways to run a profitable and successful dairy business. It’s cool to know people across the world doing the same thing.”
“U.S. dairy farmers lack power in the industry”
The price of milk in the U.S. is one of the more complicated agricultural policy issues in the U.S. After speaking with Schmitz and other dairy farmers, Portilla believes the price system in the U.S. is more ‘free’ than in Spain. However, U.S. farmers face more risk.
“In Spain, the dairy farmers sign contracts with processors for a year, where processors are obliged to buy for that time. The milk processors or cheese plants have to make an offer one month before the a deal is made so that farmers can review it,” Portilla said, adding that sales without a contract are not allowed.
Spain currently has 20,600 producing cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk
Campillos believes that the American government protects U.S. made products.
“We passed a law in Spain (the food chain law) in 2022 that now exists throughout Europe that does not allow businesses to buy products below the cost of production, on any product, Compillos said. “Protests have taken place since then because we ask that the law is strengthened to punish those businesses that break it – which are many.
“I think milk production in the U.S. would be more profitable if you had supply chain laws like we have in Spain, because you have the resources: land, feed and so on. What U.S. dairy farmers don’t have is power in the industry. Economies of large-scale don’t really solve problems. The issue is not to grow and grow. Policies need to make farms profitable.”
Protests across Europe have forced the European Commission to make some concessions such as removing a target to cut farming emissions from its 2040 climate plan along with a bill to decrease the use of chemical pesticides was also sidelined. According to Elcano, EU farmers no longer have to set aside part of their land to foster biodiversity. Compillos says the protests also garnered support from consumers as well.
“People found out about our needs, demands and the problems we have,” Compillos said. “(Because of the protests) we got a fluid and fast dialogue with the governments. In Spain, 43 emergency measures were passed as a result. Our group Spanish Coordination of Farmers and Ranchers (COAG) did not support them, as we don’t think they are sufficient.”
