Author: Rachel Ravencraft

Science Makes the Case for Whole Milk, Teicholz Says

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

You don’t have to be part of the dairy sector to see how important whole milk is for children, best-selling author Nina Teicholz, Ph.D., said in the latest Dairy Defined Podcast.

That’s because nutrition science makes a compelling case for full-fat milk, underscoring the importance of getting whole milk back in schools, the goal of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, she said.

Children who drink whole milk tend to be healthier, she said. “You need the fat in the milk to digest the vitamins that are in the milk, those are fat soluble vitamins. “I’m not a dairy advocate, but it turns out that the science supports the position of those of people in the industry who would prefer to see whole milk back in schools.”

Teicholz, author of “The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet,” also discussed how food policy might be shaken up by Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s. confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary.

NMPF has a call to action supporting the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act for listeners who want to get involved, here. For more of the Dairy Defined podcast, you can find and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music under the podcast name “Dairy Defined.”

NMPF Statement on Bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

From NMPF President & CEO Gregg Doud:

“NMPF commends House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, R-PA, and Rep. Kim Schrier, D-WA, for continuing to lead their bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act to help increase kids’ access to milk’s vital nutrients.

“The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reaffirmed in its Scientific Report last December that most kids and adolescents are not meeting daily dairy intake recommendations. Good nutrition is a cornerstone of children’s health and development, and milk plays an unparalleled role in providing the nutrients kids need to grow and thrive. But kids take more milk, and drink more milk, in school when they have nutrient-dense options they like. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that dairy foods at all fat levels have a neutral or positive effect on health outcomes, ranging from lower prevalence of obesity and diabetes to reduced heart disease risk and healthy cholesterol levels.

“We are grateful to the House Education and the Workforce Committee for approving the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act today on a bipartisan vote. It’s a critical step toward finally expanding the popular, healthy milk options schools can serve to improve student nutrition.”

Diving in on Dairy’s Legislative Agenda

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have now taken their oaths of office, and the 119th Congress has been seated. While the opening weeks of a new Congress and presidency focus on nominations and organization, these important housekeeping processes will soon give way to a busy legislative session.

We know dairy is ready for an action-packed 2025. NMPF’s major legislative goals begins with passage of a five-year farm bill, but what makes up that bill for dairy is just as important.

First, enabling schools to offer whole and reduced-fat milk is paramount. Milk provides 13 essential nutrients and is the top source of calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin D for children ages 2-18. However, just last month, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s Scientific Report reaffirmed that 88% of all Americans are underconsuming dairy. The bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, recently reintroduced in Congress, provides the solution. This bill would allow, but not require, schools to serve all varieties of milk, including whole and reduced-fat milk. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that dairy foods at all fat levels have a neutral or positive effect on health outcomes. NMPF strongly supports swift passage of this measure to solve a critical child nutrition problem.

This problem is made clearer by the data. Accurate, transparent data drives strong public policymaking. And that brings up another NMPF policy priority: remedying the persistent lack of accurate data when it comes to the costs of manufacturing raw milk into processed dairy products, which denies stakeholders an essential tool for assessing how milk pricing formulas ought to be structured.

A fix lies in the Fair Milk Pricing for Farmers Act, a bipartisan bill to require USDA to conduct mandatory dairy manufacturing cost surveys every two years. This will equip all voices in the dairy industry with better data to help drive future dairy pricing conversations.

Ongoing discussions on dairy pricing are vital for an industry that continues to innovate and advance. But milk pricing isn’t the only area where innovation is necessary. On the farm, U.S. dairy farmers benefit from safe and effective feed ingredients that can boost productivity in their herds and support environmental stewardship. However, the Food and Drug Administration’s current outdated review process for these ingredients hinders their timely approval and puts U.S. dairy farmers at a disadvantage with their global competitors. NMPF supports the bipartisan Innovative FEED Act, first introduced in 2023, to create a safe but expeditious process for FDA to review these products to help farmers make important gains and stay competitive.

These are just a handful of the major legislative efforts NMPF seeks to advance. Each of these bipartisan bills made headway last year as the House and Senate began their respective farm bill processes. With the new Congress getting ready to produce results, dairy stands ready to get these important priorities signed into law.

Gregg Doud

President & CEO, NMPF

 

The Move Back to Milk

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

This just in: The sun rose today, people argued over politics … and consumers keep fleeing from plant-based beverages.

That final statement is becoming so obvious that it wouldn’t be worth writing about anymore – if people paid enough attention. But given the strength of misinformation in 2025, let’s say it again: Plant-based beverages are losing market share to milk, as in real, recognizable-to-your-grandmother, dairy-from-a-mammal milk. The 2024 retail data is in. And here’s what the trend shows.

Source: Circana

According to Circana, which tracks retail sales scans, milk’s sales volume relative to plant-based beverages rose again in 2024, with its relative share now at its highest since 2019. While milk consumption stayed essentially flat, plant-based beverage consumption fell for its third consecutive year, with almond and soy continuing to fall and oats going nowhere. Check out that trend, below.

Source: Circana

What does it all mean?

It likely means that consumers are continuing to catch on to the misleading arguments of plant-based beverage purveyors. It means that people who are seeking truly healthy, sustainable products are rediscovering dairy. It also means that the government should catch up to the people it serves by encouraging healthy choices through enforcing its own standards of identity for dairy terms and making it clear that plant-based alternatives don’t provide the nutrition consumers expect from milk.

But even though all the above is true, we’d answer that question with one word: Sanity. After decades of dishonest marketing and open disregard for FDA rules, truth and healthy nutrition are winning. And dairy farmers are happy to keep that positive trend going, by providing the world’s most perfect beverage, one that’s increasingly chosen over the dishonest knockoffs.

Raise your glass, and many more. It’s the increasingly popular thing to do.

Ready for Action: NMPF’s Bleiberg Anticipates Busy 2025

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

With a Republican “trifecta” of House, Senate and White House control, 2025 will be an active year in Washington, NMPF Executive Vice President for Government Affairs Paul Bleiberg said in a Dairy Defined Podcast released today.

“Everybody should just buckle up. It’s going to be a busy 2025,” said Bleiberg, who leads NMPF’s lobbying efforts.

The trifecta “means a certain ability to move your agenda through unilaterally or without the other party involved,” he said. “It also in broader terms refers to setting the agenda, obviously controlling the different committees and setting topics and moving legislation through broad decisions about governing really do fall to the party that has a trifecta.”

That will have meaningful effects on taxes and other areas of legislation, as well as on regulatory efforts, Bleiberg said. Immigration and trade also promise to be hot topics in the new year, ones with important implications, he said.

For more of the Dairy Defined podcast, you can find and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music under the podcast name “Dairy Defined.”

Driven by Cheese, Dairy Consumption Rises Again

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

Propelled by record cheese use and gains in butter, cottage cheese and yogurt, U.S. per capita dairy consumption returned to 1950s levels last year, according to USDA data released just before Thanksgiving.

At 661 pounds per person, the amount of milk Americans consume is back to where it was in 2021, which in turn was on par with the year Buddy Holly died — at least in terms of dairy U.S. dairy consumption.

What’s driving the trend? Think cheese, which has doubled in per capita consumption over the past 50 years even as per capita fluid milk use has declined. Or look at butter, at its highest since the 1960s. And fermented dairy products are having a moment — cottage cheese consumption is at its highest in a decade, and yogurt is also rising.

The only disappointment? Rounding. If you drill more deeply into the numbers, 2023 didn’t quite match 2021, with consumption at 660.7 pounds, compared to 661.2 two years ago. But with positive signs in sales and the holidays ahead, there’s still a chance for Americans to push 2024 to new heights.

We can do this, America. Have your grocery carts at the ready, help a dairy farmer, and enjoy the perfect companion for your holiday cheer.

 

NMPF Builds on Strong China Relationship

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

NMPF Executive Vice President for Policy Development & Strategy Jaime Castaneda traveled to Shanghai and Beijing the week of Nov. 4 as part of NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council’s ongoing efforts to grow U.S. dairy’s market share in China. 

Joined by USDEC President and CEO Krysta Harden, Castaneda presented at the China International Import Expo and the Global Dairy Conference, highlighting the U.S. dairy’s commitment to being a reliable supplier of high-quality, safe, and sustainable products. 

While in China, Castaneda and Harden delivered a new proposal to lower China’s most favored nation tariffs for cheese to Madam Yu, the Vice President of the China Chamber of Commerce of Foodstuffs and Native Produce. Like U.S. dairy’s successful tariff reduction effort in 2017, the proposal would improve market access for U.S. dairy producers to the top dairy importing country in the world. 

The trip to China is just the latest NMPF and USDEC effort to grow the dairy relationship between the two countries. Castaneda in September spoke at a U.S-China Bilateral Agriculture Industry Roundtable on the opportunities for American ag companies in China. That came on the heels of a USDEC-USDA Foreign Agricultural Service business development mission to Beijing and Shanghai in June, which helped to fortify relationships between U.S. dairy suppliers and Chinese buyers and strengthen ties with Chinese trade associations and government agencies. 

November CWT-Assisted Export Sales Nearly 27.6 Million Pounds

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

CWT member cooperatives secured 121 contracts in November, adding 27.6 million pounds of product to CWT-assisted sales in 2024. This is equal to 273.8 million pounds of milk in milk equivalent on a milkfat basis. These products will go to customers in Asia, Oceania, Middle East-North Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and South America and will be shipped from November 2024 through May 2025. 

Exporting dairy products is critical to the viability of dairy farmers and their cooperatives across the country. Whether or not a cooperative is actively engaged in exporting cheese, butter, anhydrous milkfat, cream cheese, or whole milk powder, moving products into world markets is essential. CWT provides a means to move domestic dairy products to overseas markets by helping to overcome U.S. dairy’s trade disadvantages.  

The amounts of dairy products and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT will pay export assistance to the bidders only when export and delivery of the product is verified by the submission of the required documentation. 

FARM Showcases Sustainability Progress

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

The National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program highlighted the launch of FARM Environmental Stewardship Version 3 at the Fall Meeting of the Dairy Sustainability Alliance, highlighting progress in dairy sustainability and stewardship.  

Nicole Ayache, NMPF’s chief sustainability officer, took the main stage to talk about the recent kick off and its incorporation of the Ruminant Farm System (RuFaS) model, a whole-farm model that simulates dairy farm production and environmental impact. Vermont dairy farmer Brian McGarry joined Ayache, sharing insights and opportunities for farmers and their cooperatives to evaluate potential technologies and measure progress.  

FARM’s Senior Director of Animal Care, Beverly Hampton Phifer, led animal care evaluators through Version 5 training in Green Bay, WI. Evaluators must be re-certified every updated version cycle and attend a recalibration training annually. This marks the ninth training of the year, with the last training for 2024 taking place last Monday in Fresno, CA.  

October DMC Margin Recedes $0.40/cwt from September Record

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

The monthly margin under the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program decreased by $0.40/cwt from September’s record level to $15.17/cwt. The October all-milk price was down $0.30/cwt from September to $25.20/cwt, while the DMC feed cost formula rose again from September, by $0.10/cwt of milk, mostly on a higher price for premium alfalfa hay. 

The end of November dairy and grain futures indicated the DMC margin would average around $11.85/cwt for all of 2024. 

Record DMC margins and relatively high prices come as policy and market developments continue to keep the NMPF/U.S. Dairy Export Council Joint Economics team busy with market analysis and events 

NMPF Senior Director for Economic Research & Analysis Stephen Cain presented a market outlook to the ADPI Risk Management Seminar on Nov. 6 in Chicago and an FMMO and a farm bill update to Texas Farm Bureau virtually on Nov. 7. Will Loux gave an overview of the impact of H5N1 on the market to the Innovation Center Animal Care Committee virtually on Nov. 14.  

H5N1 Response Evolves with FDA, USDA Studies

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

NMPF staff is providing key input into federal mitigation efforts and leading dairy-farmer response as the H5N1 situation evolves. NMPF has participated in federal-led planning groups that have been meeting daily for months, and the NCIMS Executive Board is heavily engaged with those planning groups, as well. 

FDA is in the final week of its milk silo testing study, which began Oct. 28. Through the six-week study, FDA has collected samples from raw milk storage silos at dairy processing facilities in participating states. This voluntary, double-blinded study is designed for data-gathering purposes only, with no way to trace back to individual farms. In the first three weeks of FDA’s study, only one sample tested positive for H5N1.  

USDA hopes to begin its monitoring effort after FDA’s study concludes. The USDA monitoring effort is different from FDA’s and will be ongoing. Under USDA’s  monitoring effort, samples will be taken from each raw milk silo at processing locations on a periodic basis. When a silo is determined to be positive, state animal health officials will be notified who will in turn assist farms associated with the positive sample.  

Several states have implemented their own programs with mandatory bulk testing of milk to reduce the spread of H5N1, including California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. These individual state testing programs are separate from the testing conducted by FDA and the upcoming USDA testing program. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced Nov. 20 that it would begin mandatory testing of milk from Pennsylvania dairy farms. Though no cases of H5N1 have been detected in Pennsylvania cattle, the commonwealth is implementing this program to help with early detection.  

Any cooperative or milk processor marketing milk from a Pennsylvania dairy farm must collect samples of raw milk taken from each compartment of each milk tanker from every pickup route once every 14 days to ensure that all farms supplying milk to those plants are covered. Samples must be taken by trained, certified personnel and submitted to a Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System lab within 48 hours of collection. All testing will be handled with no out-of-pocket cost to the farmer, milk processor, or hauler. If milk from a tanker truck tests positive for H5N1, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture will work with the processor to determine which farms supplied milk to that tanker. From there, the Bureau of Animal Health will take samples from individual farms to determine the source and work with those farmers on biosecurity measures to prevent further spread. More about the PA program can be found here. 

NMPF Poised for Action-Packed 2025 as Republicans Sweep

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

NMPF is analyzing the results of the 2024 elections, building new relationships and strengthening old ones as business-as-usual in Washington promises to shift next year with Republican control of the White House and both houses of Congress. 

In preparation for this “trifecta” next year, House and Senate Republicans elected their leadership teams immediately following the November elections. House Republicans voted to keep in place Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-LA, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-MN, while electing Representative Lisa McClain, R-MI, as Republican Conference Chair.  

Representatives Emmer and McClain both represent sizable dairy footprints. In the Senate, Republicans elected Senator John Thune, R-SD, a longtime dairy ally and Senate Agriculture Committee member, to serve as their Majority Leader next year. Sens. John Barrasso, R-WY, Tom Cotton, R-AR, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, were elected to the other top leadership spots of Majority Whip, Republican Conference Chair, and Republican Policy Committee Chair, respectively. 

House Republicans in December are likely to work with President Biden and Senate Democrats to extend several expiring laws on a short-term basis so that they can tackle them next year with complete control of the nation’s capital. Congress also is on track to pass another one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill before adjourning.  

This year’s House farm bill and Senate frameworks included numerous dairy priorities, such as requiring USDA to conduct mandatory manufacturing cost surveys every two years, prioritizing the protection of common food names in trade discussions, and allowing schools to serve nutrient dense whole milk. Should a new farm bill not be passed this month, NMPF will once again advocate for a new farm bill next year that meets dairy’s needs. However, an extension at least would ensure that the Dairy Margin Coverage program continues without disruption. 

Congress also is likely to extend government funding on a short-term basis, possibly until March. The House and Senate 2025 agriculture funding bills included several NMPF-backed provisions, including House language to reverse the reduction in the maximum monthly milk allotment in USDA’s final foods package rule for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and Senate language mirroring the Innovative FEED Act to allow the Food and Drug Administration to review animal feed additives in a more efficient manner.  

While a short-term funding extension will require the new Congress to complete the full-year 2025 bills, the bills drafted this year will likely serve as the starting point for final negotiations next year. 

The 119th Congress that convenes in January will have a full plate that extends well beyond finishing this year’s business. An extension of the debt limit, the federal government’s borrowing authority, will come due in the first quarter of the year. Then, with full control of Washington, Republicans are expected to turn their attention to extending the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, one of President-elect Trump’s signature accomplishments from his first term.  

NMPF will urge Congress to continue several pieces of the 2017 law, including the Section 199A domestic manufacturing tax deduction that allows agricultural cooperatives to pass the proceeds directly back to their farmer-owners. Congress is likely to complete this process using the tool known as budget reconciliation, which allows for the consideration of certain taxation and spending legislation not subject to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster requirement.