The Decline of Family Dairy Farms: A Personal and Political Story

Ryan Dennis, a columnist for Farm and Livestock Directory, has recently published Barn Gothic: Three Generations and the Death of the Family Dairy Farm with Island Press. In Barn Gothic, Ryan shares his family’s experiences trying to keep their dairy farm operating in Western New York State. He explores the politics that led to those difficult financial conditions.

Ryan answered a few questions about Barn Gothic.

In the book’s prologue, you state that the United States lost 40,000—half—of its dairy herd between 2003 and 2019. What is the single biggest reason for such a dramatic change in the dairy sector?

Although it might be misleading to pinpoint the industry collapse to a single factor, at the end of the day, certain actors had something to gain from keeping the farmgate price low. The cheaper access it provides to manufacturers and retailers, the more money they make. You can’t discount corporate interest in milk history. Additionally, while agriculture is no longer a kitchen table issue during elections, grocery bills certainly are. Government too benefits from cheap milk. These motivations have helped drive policy that has encouraged overproduction, lowering prices and forcing expansion.

While ag policy is at the periphery of Barn Gothic, it is really about your family’s relationship to the farm. It is also about their relationship with each other. There are many touching and intimate moments. Considering what is in the book, were they difficult to write?

Although I called the book a memoir, it was really the story of our family—and my father’s story. He passed away while writing Barn Gothic, which made it even tougher to complete. Admittedly, I was nervous about handing a draft to my mother and sister…and equally relieved when they approved. Even if Barn Gothic was never published, the act of putting all of the pieces together so we all had a fuller picture of our own past would have made it a personally valuable project.

What has farmers said about the book?

Probably the aspect of publishing Barn Gothic that has surprised me the most is how many farmers have found me, in person or online, to say: “That’s my story, too.” Trying to keep a family farm going is a difficult and specific act, and there aren’t many books or movies where farmers can see their experiences accurately represented. I think that, considering how much farmers have to give of themselves to keep a farm running, they have a right to have their story told.

If there’s one thing you want readers to learn from Barn Gothic, what is it?

That the family dairy farm loss didn’t have to happen.

In my opinion, one of the most frustrating and flawed ideas in agriculture is that small farms disappeared from the landscape was inevitable. I hope the book demonstrates that what happened to the American dairy industry was not the result of changing technology, or the need to feed more people. It was not an unavoidable trend. Instead, it was the consequence of specific decisions and actions in the last century by people, companies or organizations that had something to gain.

Barn Gothic is available in bookstores everywhere, as well as Amazon and Bookshop.org.