Apr 8, 2020 at 3:36 PM Florida dairy farmers have dumped enough milk into grassy fields and down industrial drains in the past week to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool. Florida dairy farmers collectively have spewed enough milk into grassy fields and down industrial drains in the past week to overflow an Olympic-size swimming pool. About 70 farms began dumping excess milk April 1 — 135 tankers totaling over 800,000 gallons — according to Joe Wright of V&W Farms in Avon Park. That’s because schools are closed. Theme parks are shuttered. Restaurant dining rooms are empty. The COVID-19 pandemic has all but obliterated institutional milk sales, said Wright, who has been president of Southeast Milk, Inc., a Belleview-based cooperative serving six Southern states, for the past 23 years. Coronavirus: UF moves late summer term classes online “It’s heartbreaking … we’re getting calls from food banks. There is a need for milk,” Wright said. “The fact that grocery stores are still limiting the purchases when we’re pouring it down the drain — there’s just a disconnect there.” Panic buying Panic buying of groceries led to a shortage of milk across the state in March, as the new coronavirus seeped into nearly every Florida county. Some stores began limiting purchases per customer or household. How did coronavirus infect Florida? Travelers visited 46 states, 75 foreign destinations before diagnosis Tuesday, there was a two-gallon purchase limit on milk at the Publix at Prima Vista Crossing in Port St. Lucie. Similar restrictions applied at the Wawa on West Gandy Boulevard in Tampa, the Sam’s Club on Youngerman Circle in Jacksonville, and the Winn-Dixie on Gulf Breeze Parkway in Pensacola. “There’s a huge amount of milk still today going on the ground in the state of Florida,” said Brittany Nickerson Thurlow, a fifth-generation dairy […]
