Update: Dairy Farmers’ Movement for Change – April 28, 2010
5 Items:
- Contact Senators and Reps. to ask them to sign on a letter to get funding for “daily electronic price reporting for dairy” – Action Item – sample letter/script provided
- China Not Allowing US Dairy Imports – cites health issues
- Recap of Testimony during Farm Bill 2012 field hearing April 20 in Harrisburg, PA
- Missouri Third-Graders send letters to Congress for healthier school lunch
- Child Nutrition Bill being Debated in Senate
**Action Item””- Please act before Friday, April 30. -
Contact Your Senators and Representative to get funding for “daily electronic price reporting for dairy” …improves transparency in the dairy market.
The Dairy Policy Action Coalition (DPAC) has been working with members of Congress and USDA on this issue. Government relations consultant Dennis Wolff reported Wednesday that USDA is supportive of implementing the daily electronic reporting provision, provided the funding is included in the upcoming agriculture appropriations bill.
During meetings with DPAC earlier this month, USDA estimated the cost of implementation at $600,000 for technical start-up and $1 to $2 million per year in human resources to facilitate the price reporting and increased auditing.
The letter initiated by Sen. Specter and Rep. Holden seeks to provide this funding.
Sen. Specter and Rep. Holden seek as many Congressional signatures as possible before they deliver this letter next week to Senate Ag Appropriations Chair Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Ranking Member Sam Brownback (R-KS) and to House Ag Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Ranking Member Jack Kingston (R-GA).
Dairy producers are encouraged to personally contact their Senators and Representatives this week to ask for their support of funding for daily electronic reporting. To add their signatures to the letter, members of Congress should contact Adam Tarr at Sen. Specter’s office (adam_tarr@specter.senate.gov) or Jake Kuhns at Rep. Holden’s office (jake.kuhns@mail.house.gov).
A full copy of the Congressional letter to the leadership of the the House and Senate Ag Appropriations Committee can be found here.
Click here for a sample letter you can use and edit for contacting your Senators or Representatives about supporting this funding for daily electronic reporting.
SAMPLE LETTER for Getting Your Senators/Representatives Signature
Dear (Sen./Honorable)
I am writing as a Dairy Farmer/member of the dairy industry, who is concerned about dairy product price discovery that affects the farm milk price.
DPAC (Dairy Policy Action Coalition; a coalition of grassroots dairy producers) has been working to get funding for the daily electronic reporting and quarterly auditing of dairy products per Section 1510 of the current Farm Bill. (USDA estimates a manageable start-up cost of approximately $600,000 and $1 to 2 million per year for auditing).
Senators and Representatives are listening, and I am asking for your leadership on this issue. I am asking for you to support this effort by signing on to the attached letter authored by Senator Arlen Specter and Representative Tim Holden.
To participate in signing this letter, please contact Adam Tarr at Sen. Specter’s office
adam_tarr@senate.specter.gov (note adam_tarr) or Jake Kuhns at Rep. Holden’s office Jake.kuhns@mail.house.gov
Thank
you for considering this important step towards improving market transparency
in the dairy industry.
China Closing Borders to US Dairy Imports
The big news today is that China has notified the U.S. it will no longer accept American dairy imports.
China is citing health issues. The outcome remains to be seen. So much for globalism.
Source: John Bunting - MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2010
Recap of Dairy Policy Testimony Presented to:
by Tammy Graves
U.S. House of Representatives - Committee on Agriculture
April 20, 2010 - Harrisburg, PA
Committee on Agriculture Members Present – 7:
Collin Peterson (MN), Chairman
Tim Holden (PA), Vice Chairman
Leonard Boswell (IA)
David Scott (GA), Chairman of Subcommittee of Livestock (handles dairy policy)
Kathleen Dahlkemper (PA)
Randy Neugebauer (TX)
Glenn Thompson (PA)
Purpose: A Field Hearing to review dairy policy for development of Farm Bill 2012
#1 Farm Bill 2012 Action needs to be Price Discovery based on testimony.
Remarks by Collin Peterson, Chairman:
- Current federal programs are not providing appropriate safety net, There is a consumer disconnect and economic/business climate made worse by trade agreements.
- Need risk management for dairy – need something for all agriculture. That’s going to be what’s left for gov’t help
- Price discovery: mandatory price reporting needs to be reauthorized by Sept. 2010. Met with Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and they are on the right track for packaging reporting info in a working manner for producers to use. It will roll out in June or July 2010.
- Encouraged by what’s going on in the industry…consensus building. Needing a change is universal in the industry.
Panel I
Russell Redding, PA Sec. of Agriculture
Pricing transparency is needed now – can’t wait to next Farm Bill. Implement near term changes and use experiences for debate of next Farm Bill. Thank you for the reporting and feed adjustment of the last Farm Bill. There is a “confidence crisis.”
Responses to questions: We need more than CME. We don’t know the value/worth of milk in the marketplace. Include fresh and manufactured products, Consumer Price Index. The basket of tools are on the table with Sec. Vilsack.
Jim Dunn, Penn State Professor of Agricultural Economics
Recapped export from 2008: high exports, high all-milk prices. U.S. dairy industry has historically been 10% imports and 10% exports
European Union is a heavily subsidized high exporter.
*Running out of collateral and ability to service loan
Many parties are on thin ice – has same credit concerns as Sec. Redding
- Trade is important.
- Growth in rest of world is not going to be buying high-value dairy products. They will want storable (MPC) products instead. (personal thought: so we want to produce MPCs in the U.S. so we can make store products until the hungry in Africa have money to buy MPC-containing dairy products or until a Hunger Relief Agency buys it. How is this a profitable export market for dairy farmers?)
Panel II
John Frey, Executive Director, Center for Dairy Excellence
- LGM risk management is good. Having ag economists analyze and compare plans – Dairy Growth Management Plan, Dairy Stabilization Plan, etc.
Farmer: Rod Hissong, Dairy Producer, Mercer Vu Farms, Mercersburg, PA
Speaking on behalf of: Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania (PDMP) – past president
-pricing away from CME needed to be more transparent to reflect what products milk is used for and cost of production
-implement mandatory reporting and import assessment from prior Farm bill
- tear down and start over the milk pricing because we’ve been remodeling for years
Farmer: Lauren Mosemann, Dairy Producer, Misty Mountain Dairy, Warfordsburg, PA
Speaking on behalf of: National Milk Producers Federation and Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Assoc.
- supports Dairy Producer Income Protection Program
Farmer: Kent Heffner, Dairy Producer, Pine Grove, PA
Speaking on behalf of: Farm Bureau, President of the Schuylkill/Carbon County
- encourage domestic MPC, continue MILC
- is the direct marketer of the farm operation – hears that MPC being bad
Farmer: Daniel Brandt, Dairy Producer, Brandt View Farms, Annville, PA
Speaking on behalf of: Dairy Policy Action Coalition (DPAC)
- improve price transparency/discover. Pull away the curtain, make it simple. Take out errors and manipulation
- include more products, more frequent reporting, NAS survey lags (May milk will be determined by March cheese)
- Fund 1510 of Farm Bill – mandatory reporting with auditing (implement, expand to include Italian cheeses, improve inventory reports
- Redirect dairy support money for purchases to put in recourse loan program for processors to reinvest in their facilities and product innovation
- World prices are higher.
- Need 2 classses to remove ability to manipulate (pay farmer for Class IV and sell the milk to Class III)
Processor: Todd Rutter, President, Rutter’s Dairy, York, PA
- dairy farmers need to be planning ahead and risk management
- he pays the mandated price, offers premiums to keep a supply of milk and the raw milk price has to maintain his (processor) competitiveness
- processors need access to credit – processors are not reinvesting
Tallying supporters of the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009 Dairy Bill S1645
Source: CowsAndCrops.com
The tally of supporters will be forwarded to the House and Senate.
“I support” responses can be emailed to:
Lisa M. Robinson,
A New York Dairy Farmer and Consumer,
607-525-6329
robinsonfarms@zoominternet.net
OR
LoriJayne M. Grahn,
A Minnesota Dairy Farmer and Consumer,
218-863-8173
The Bill S-1645 is a solution to fix a broken pricing system that fails us
over and over again, leaving us with welfare subsidies and programs that
don't work.
Authored by Gerald Carlin, Meshoppen, PA
LUNCHTIME LAMENTS
Third-grade students ask for healthier school meals
Third-grade classes at Lee sent state Rep. Mary Still, D-Columbia, and state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, 48 handwritten letters bemoaning the food they’re served for breakfast and lunch at Lee. The students asked that prepackaged foods and canned “soggy green beans” be replaced with locally grown food. The letters, which were passed on to U.S. Sens. Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill, also asked for more federal funds to improve school lunches.
Full story: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/mar/31/lunchtime-laments/
SENATE STARTS DEBATING CHILD NUTRITION BILL
The child nutrition bill is making its way through the Senate. Our campaign has been helping third-graders write Congress (read the article here) with support from Slow Food Katy Trail (Missouri). Slow Food USA leaders from Chicago and Milwaukee have met with their legislators to talk about the importance of getting real food in schools.
If you haven't sent a letter to your legislator voicing your support, please do so on our web site.
Thanks for reading and acting,
Tammy Graves
sister to 2 dairy farmers in New York and concerned consumer.
315/858-0163