Frustration in the Fields as Farm Bill Remains in Limbo

By Marc Heller

The pressure on dairy farmers like Jim Davenport to quit comes from every direction these days: volatile milk prices. Shuttered dairy plants. Rising land values that promise a windfall to cash out out to developers.

Without a little help from the government, farmers say, agriculture here in the Hudson River Valley and other places dominated by small farms might succumb and shrink into little more than a hobby.