At the end of April, we began a one-of-a-kind Progressive Dairyman straw poll, asking dairy producers to evaluate and choose the dairy reform plan they support most for needed industry reform.

Why did we do it? 2009 was an extreme low milk price year. Producers drained their equity to survive. By the time prices pulled upward, most felt beat up, used and abused. Ideas for reforming dairy pricing policy that previously lacked traction rekindled interest.

Dear Progressive Dairyman,
I’m a consumer, and I support the Specter-Casey bill.

Signed,
John Doe, Consumer

Over the past several months, Progressive Dairyman has literally received hundreds of letters that are almost identical to the one above, mostly from Pennsylvania. They usually come in groups, but with individual names and addresses of people that are responding to the magazine’s dairy reform plan poll.