Dairy Farmers of America to Merge with Dairylea in 2014

Dec 30, 2013

Dairy Farmers of America, the United States’ largest marketing cooperative, based in Kansas City, has approved a plan to merge with Dairylea Cooperative Inc, of Syracuse, New York. Dairylea, a regional co-op in Upstate New York has about 2,000 members and markets around 6 billion pounds of milk per annum, while DFA has about 13,000 members and markets upwards of 61 billion pounds of milk per annum.

Although Dairylea is already a member co-op of DFA, the merger would bring together resources and expertise to form one of the largest dairy marketing services in the world. "They have been so closely coordinated that this is going to be a pretty smooth transition," predicted Andrew Novakovic, Ph.D., an agricultural economist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

While many look at this merger as good thing, there are of course, the sceptics. "Not everybody is going to agree with this move," said Mary Fetter, who runs a Wyoming County dairy farm with her husband, Paul. They are DFA members.

"There's going to be unhappy DFA members," Fetter said. "Is it good or bad? Time is going to tell."

Dairylea members will vote on the proposed plan in February.

Video: Finding a Balance of Innovation and Regulation - Dr. Peter Facchini

Regulations help markets and industry exist on level playing fields, keeping consumers safe and innovation from going too far. However, incredibly strict regulations can stunt innovation and cause entire industries to wither away. Dr. Peter James Facchini brings his perspective on how existing regulations have slowed the advancement of medical developments within Canada. Given the international concern of opium poppy’s illicit potential, Health Canada must abide by this global policy. But with modern technology pushing the development of many pharmaceuticals to being grown via fermentation, is it time to reconsider the rules?

Dr. Peter James Facchini leads research into the metabolic biochemistry in opium poppy at the University of Calgary. For more than 30 years, his work has contributed to the increased availability of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes to assist in the creation of morphine for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Facchini completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto before completing Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky in 1992 & Université de Montréal in 1995.