9. Connecting with Consumers >
9.1 Social Mission Campaigns >
9.1.3 Family Farms Campaign
Saving Family Farms
A lot of what’s good about Vermont — and Ben & Jerry’s — comes from family farms. We’re thankful for their contribution. We’re also concerned about their survival under pressure from giant industrial farming operations, encroaching urban development and economic shifts that urge farmers to get big or get out.
In 2005, with our partners at the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), we launched an integrated campaign to educate the public on key farm policy issues and to urge folks to take action by contacting Congress. Ben & Jerry’s created a new Family Farms section of our website and unveiled a $1.79 million advertising campaign in eight key markets (Boston; Burlington, Vermont; Denver; New York; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; Seattle; and Washington, DC). The ad features Vermont dairy farmer Mike Eastman, one of our suppliers in the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery. To watch the ad spot, follow the link from our Family Farms site.
On our Family Farms website, visitors could learn more about key issues and find timely action steps to take on behalf of small and mid-sized family farms. The site’s first Call to Action with NFU sparked nearly 3,500 letters to Congress in support of the MILC Program, the basic safety net for America’s dairy farmers. (In February of 2006, Congress did indeed extend the MILC Program for two years, by a narrow margin.) The site’s second Call to Action urged Congress to craft a 2007 Farm Bill that will protect small and mid-sized farms while limiting the expansion of industrial agriculture.