New Delhi, Sept. 12 -- Growth in export markets has long been lauded as the measure of success in American agriculture. Last year, U.S Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue credited exports for being a "major driver of the rural economy, generating 20 percent of U.S. farm income and supporting more than a million U.S. jobs."
Those statistics conceal a hidden truth that most farmers know firsthand: exports don't actually bring better prices. In dairy, exports have reached historic highs - now topping 15% of the total U.S milk supply - but that growth has failed to provide farmers a livable wage.
In a recent webinar hosted by Wisconsin Farmers Union through the Dairy Together initiative, dairy economist Chuck Nicholson explained, "price imp...