Fourth-generation dairy farmer warns economic woes, climate change regulations could end family farms
A fourth-generation dairy farmer warned that climate change-related regulations and a slew of economic woes could signal the end for her family’s way of life after nearly a century.
“We’ve been attacked in the dairy industry for a while now,” Stephanie Nash told Fox News. “Instead of educating people through the farmer, we’re educating them through people that have never farmed and we’re killing off our family farmers.”
Rising costs, labor and supply shortages and little support – in addition to climate change and conservation regulations – are all major obstacles threatening the Nash family, which has been in the dairy farming business for 92 years.
Stephanie, 28, and her father, Steven Nash, moved their almost century-old dairy farm from California’s San Joaquin Valley to Tennessee in 2014 to escape the Golden State’s strict farming regulations and high cost of doing business.
“They regulate us on every step we make,” Stephanie recalled from their time in California. “We’re constantly looked at, constantly manipulated and told what to do, and farmers, especially my dad’s age and older, they don’t want to be told how to farm.” – READ MORE
This had been happening for years. One of my best childhood friends back in Wisconsin, third-generation dairy farmer on the same farm his grandfather started, sold his herd and got out of the business a couple years ago. Couldn’t afford to keep it going. Sad.