Listen to the latest updates on agricultural labor reform efforts in the U.S. Senate from NMPF Senior Vice President of Membership Services and Strategic Initiatives Chris Galen on Dairy Radio Now.

More than one year after comments closed on FDA’s request for information on fake-milk labeling; with health organizations warning against inappropriate consumption of plant-based beverages; with a rising number of lawmakers asking why nothing’s been done; and with a new FDA commissioner who seems to understand the problem, FDA still hasn’t resolved the public-health issue of mislabeled plant-based products using dairy terms that imply nutritional equivalence to consumers.

Why not?

That would be for FDA to answer. But if the concern is that FDA’s beginning to enforce its own longstanding rules may create confusion, we have an answer for that: a road map that updates dairy-labeling rules, clarifies marketplace practices and ensures fair competition among dairy and plant-based products. Written as a Citizen Petition responding to the comments FDA solicited, the map is NMPF’s proposed solution to the fake-dairy labeling problem – and it includes a few nuggets that might surprise consumers whose news diets include too much plant-based misinformation. For example:

• The petition would clarify that milk from animals other than cows, such as sheep, goats and water buffalo, are acceptable for dairy labeling, because milk only comes from mammals.
• It explains why terms like “Peanut Butter” and “Milk of Magnesia” are compatible with current FDA rules, while calling an almond-based beverage “milk” isn’t. (Short answer: It has to do with a product’s established use – these products aren’t marketed as substitutes for dairy.)
• It even reaffirms circumstances under which plant-based products could still use dairy terms, and it clearly does not ban the use of those dairy terms if used in a way that fits with with decades-old federal regulations that are consistent with the First Amendment. Words such as “alternative,” “imitation” and “substitute,” properly administered, can give consumers the information they need and maintain nutrition and labeling integrity, while allowing plant-based purveyors the leeway to market their heavily processed, flavored sugar waters largely how they’d like.
• Finally, the road map contains a detailed analysis of relevant case law to address First Amendment concerns over labeling terms. It surveys the legal landscape to ensure that solutions on disclosure requirements are narrowly tailored to improving labeling transparency and promoting informed consumer choice. It emphatically does not propose a blanket ban on the use of dairy terms by plant-based products.

Dairy farmers understand the FDA has a lot on its plate. But after more than 40 years of non-enforcement – and a nearly two-year-old pledge to act – let’s get real.  The path is clear, the road map exists. All that’s left is action – by FDA, Congress, or both – to do what’s right for consumers. We won’t be quiet until it’s done.

NMPF commends the 58 members of the House of Representatives who wrote FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn today, urging the agency to quickly finish and act upon its examination of how to enforce regulations defining what may be labeled a dairy product.

“The deception caused by mislabeling of imitation products is both unfair to our hardworking dairy farmers and problematic for consumers, making it harder for Americans to make educated decisions about what they feed themselves and their families,” wrote the lawmakers in the bipartisan letter, which was led by Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Anthony Brindisi (D-NY), and John Joyce (R-PA).

Citing public health concerns expressed by medical groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the members of Congress said they appreciated that Hahn saw the topic of fake dairy labeling as “a public health and nutrition matter” while calling action on it “long overdue.”

“FDA knows this is a problem, and now is the time to solve it,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation. “Dr. Hahn has shown his interest in resolving it, public-health professionals have spoken out, and more and more members of Congress are as well. Agency inertia shouldn’t jeopardize public health. We applaud the efforts of lawmakers to prod FDA into action.”

Many letter-signers are also co-sponsoring the DAIRY PRIDE Act, introduced by Representatives Welch and Simpson in the House and Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Jim Risch (R-ID) in the Senate. That legislation would designate foods that make an inaccurate claim about milk contents as “misbranded” and subject to enforcement of labeling rules. It would require FDA to issue guidance for nationwide enforcement of mislabeled imitation dairy products within 90 days of its passage and require FDA to report to Congress two years after enactment to hold the agency accountable in its enforcement.

Hahn has voiced his support for “clear, transparent, and understandable labeling for the American people.” Given the agency’s inability to follow up on earlier pledges to act, NMPF supports DAIRY PRIDE’s passage.

ARLINGTON, Va. – Dairy farming continues to advance in sustainability and animal welfare as technology and scientific understanding evolves, ensuring better care for the planet and for animals, said Jamie Jonker, NMPF vice president for sustainability and scientific affairs, in this week’s Dairy Defined Podcast.

Jonker discussed the significance of recent USDA discussions on agricultural sustainability in which he’s been involved while drilling more deeply into a topic of long-term importance to public health: improved management of antibiotics use in livestock. As science advances, so does dairy, Jonker said, making the sector’s ambitious sustainability and public-health goals achievable even as productivity increases, he said.

“The dairy farm I that grew up on looked a lot different from my great-grandparents’ dairy farm. Our animals made a lot more milk because we knew a lot more about genetics. They made a lot more milk because we knew how to feed them. They also made a lot more milk because we knew a lot more about how to take care of them,” Jonker said. “That’s just going to continue on into the future.”

To listen to the full podcast, click here. You can also find the Dairy Defined podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,  SoundCloud and Google Play. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file. Please attribute information to NMPF.

(Note: NMPF’s Dairy Defined podcast explores today’s dairy farms and industry using high-quality data and podcast-style interviews to explain current dairy issues and dispel myths.)

ARLINGTON, Va. – Of the many inaccurate arguments misattributed to dairy in the debate over imitation-product labeling, one of the most persistent is that “Big Dairy says consumers are confused about what milk is” – a statement that tries to turn a public-health issue into a debate on respect for consumer intelligence.

Saying that “Big Dairy” (whatever that is) thinks consumers can’t tell real milk from a plant-based beverage  is a classic “red herring” argument, a logical fallacy that leads audiences toward false conclusions by misdirecting an important question. The misstatement – let’s call it what it really is: the Big Lie – creates its own confusion by substituting the important public-health issue that dairy and health advocates are raising – whether consumers understand the nutritional differences between dairy products and plant-based imitators – with an argument that no one is actually making, but is easier to refute.

That’s the kind of obfuscation a sector trying to get away with inaccurate marketing wants to create. For the public good, they can’t get away with it.

So, for the thousandth time: The concern over “confusion” being raised by dairy groups isn’t about whether or not a dairy product contains an almond. It centers on the wildly different nutritional profiles of non-dairy products that create a false consumer perception of equivalence when they use dairy terms on their labels — and encourages decisions well-meaning consumers might not otherwise make were labels more accurate.

Misleading labeling harms public health. That’s the concern NMPF raised last month in a hearing on the DAIRY PRIDE Act, which would direct the FDA to enforce labeling integrity. That’s the concern addressed in last year’s FDA docket on dairy labeling. And that’s the concern on which research is quite clear. A 2018 IPSOS survey commissioned by Dairy Management, Inc. found that:

• 77 percent of consumers thought almond-based drinks had as much or more protein per serving than milk. Milk has up to eight times as much protein.
• 53 percent said they believed that plant-based food manufacturers labeled their products “milk” because their nutritional value is similar.
• Misinformation was even more prevalent among consumers who solely purchase plant-based beverages. Of those buyers, 68 percent strongly or somewhat agreed that those drinks have the same nutritional content as dairy milk.

Don’t believe that data? Here’s what the American Academy of Pediatrics has to say:

Pediatricians report that using the term “milk” in the labeling of dairy-free alternatives has caused parental confusion, leading to the purchase of products that they assume contain traditional dairy ingredients and, thereby, unintentionally causing harmful nutritional deficiencies in their children. … Given the importance of dairy products in the diet of children and the confusion that parents exhibit with regards to the nutrients contained in plant-based alternative products, the AAP recommends that FDA reserve the label of “milk” solely for traditional dairy products to ensure that children receive the optimal nutrition they need.

To fight the misdirection, it’s crucially important to remember the actual question before FDA: whether clear labeling that reserves dairy terms for dairy products would help consumers. Given the nutritional confusion in the marketplace, a signal to a consumer that indicates a non-dairy substitute isn’t nutritionally equivalent to a dairy product would seem helpful. It’s what other countries do, and it’s what many good-actor companies already do in the U.S., so the goal is clearly easy to achieve.

It’s time to bury the “consumers already know what’s in their milk” red herring. Busy, intelligent consumers need all the help they can get, without plant-based peddlers exploiting the fact that most people aren’t nutrition scientists and understandably (and accurately) associate beneficial nutritional qualities with dairy terms.

Let people who want high-protein, high-calcium, nutrient-rich, natural dairy products know that the real thing – with a label that uses dairy terms correctly — gives them what they seek. Other consumers can buy whatever imitations they wish. But companies shouldn’t be allowed to market with terms that imply they’re something they’re not.

Plant-based products have their place. Red herrings should have no place in their promotion.

Listen to the latest updates on the DAIRY PRIDE Act and the FDA’s (lack of) enforcement on imitation dairy product labeling from NMPF Senior Vice President of Membership Services and Strategic Initiatives Chris Galen on Dairy Radio Now.

CWT assisted member cooperatives in securing 32 contracts resulting in sales of 1.3 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 328,489 pounds of butter, 661,387 pounds of whole milk powder and 644,852 pounds of cream cheese. The product is going to 25 customers in Asia, Central America, the Middle East, Oceania and South America. The product will be shipped during the months of January through April 2020.

These transactions will move the equivalent of 29.4 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis overseas. This is in addition to the milk equivalent 110 million pounds of products CWT assisted members to sell in 2019 that will be shipped in 2020.

Assisting CWT member cooperatives to gain and maintain world market share through the Export Assistance program, in the long-term expands the demand for U.S. dairy products and the U.S. farm milk that produces them. This, in turn, positively impacts all U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

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.

All cooperatives and dairy farmers are encouraged to add their support to this important program. Membership forms are available at http://www.cwt.coop/membership.

The National Milk Producers Federation is now accepting applications for its National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program for academic year 2020-2021.

Each year, NMPF awards scholarships to outstanding graduate students (enrolled in Master’s or Ph.D. programs) actively pursuing dairy-related fields of research of immediate interest to NMPF member cooperatives and the broader dairy industry.

Graduate students pursuing research of direct benefit to milk marketing cooperatives and dairy producers are encouraged to apply. Applicants do not need to be members of NMPF cooperatives. The top scholarship applicant will be awarded the Hintz Memorial Scholarship, created in 2005 in honor of the late Cass-Clay Creamery Board Chairman Murray Hintz, who was instrumental in establishing NMPF’s scholarship program.

Recommended fields of study include but are not limited to Agriculture Communications and Journalism, Animal Health, Animal and/or Human Nutrition, Bovine Genetics, Dairy Products Processing, Dairy Science, Economics, Environmental Science, Food Science, Food Safety, Herd Management, and Marketing and Price Analysis.

Applications must be received no later than Friday, April 3. For an application or more information, please visit the NMPF website or email scholarship@nmpf.org.

While USMCA, China and Japan have dominated trade conversations, NMPF has remained active on multiple other trade-policy fronts affecting dairy exports, including several sets of comments on issues critical to the U.S. dairy industry pending before the U.S. Trade Representative.

NMPF submitted comments to USTR on Dec. 30, as France considers a Digital Services Tax, regarding proposed retaliatory tariffs to ensure that a final list of duties imposed as retaliation against France’s tax includes high-value dairy tariff lines. France is currently pausing its pursuit of the tax. In conjunction with that filing, Dr. Peter Vitaliano, NMPF’s Vice President for Economic Policy and Market Research, testified before USTR on Jan. 7, explaining how France’s unjust trade barriers on dairy products have unduly restricted U.S. dairy exports.

One of the most egregious of these trade barriers is the European Union (EU)’s aggressive use of geographical indications (GIs) to prohibit U.S. exports of common name cheeses. France strongly supports the EU’s stance on GIs and has used these restrictions to erect de facto trade barriers on U.S. imports. Examples of French GIs include common cheese terms such as muenster, gruyere, and neufchatel.

NMPF also submitted comments to USTR on Jan. 13 regarding the retaliatory tariffs issued in response to the EU’s ongoing lack of compliance with the World Trade Organization ruling on European Airbus subsidies. NMPF urged USTR to retain all dairy tariff lines and increase ad valorem duties to 100 percent on certain tariff lines.

As USTR evaluates candidates for heightened tariff levels, NMPF strongly recommends it place a high priority on tariff lines under which common name cheeses are categorized, as well as tariff lines for butter imports because of its significant commercial value to the EU.

 

Indonesia in sight

NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council also submitted comments on Jan. 17 to USTR on Indonesia’s adherence to its market access commitments under a special duty-free trade arrangement called the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). NMPF staff also testified on Jan. 31 at a USTR-led hearing on the issue.

Indonesia is a top-10 export market for U.S. dairy products and a valuable trading partner. Still, Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture has raised regulatory barriers that have blocked the registration of new U.S. dairy facilities and hindered U.S. dairy exports from companies seeking to expand their ability to ship to this key market. NMPF and USDEC have asked USTR to continue its review of Indonesia’s GSP commitments in hopes that a constructive solution can be found quickly.

NMPF filed comments Jan. 10 to a USDA docket on its Conservation Stewardship Program, emphasizing that while this program helps dairy farmers, the department’s National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) needs to work with the dairy industry to embrace new technology and approaches to conservation.

Dairy farmers have a history of using conservation programs, including CSP, despite outdated statutory restrictions related to animal waste storage or treatment facilities and waste transport or transfer devices for animal feeding operations. New technology and innovation in manure, feed, and silage management offer new opportunities to improve air, water and soil quality, with the help of the Conservation Stewardship program.

As the U.S. dairy industry considers plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, programs like CSP will be essential to lower the cost of effective new technologies for farmers. “U.S. dairy producers are looking to be global leaders who are economically viable and environmentally sustainable while providing the highest-quality animal care,” NMPF wrote in its comments.

CSP was developed to encourage producers to address priority resource concerns and conserve the quality and condition of the natural resources available by pursuing or building upon conservation practices already in place at their business. CSP provides financial and technical assistance to eligible producers to conserve soil, water, air and other related natural resources. The program was updated in the 2018 Farm Bill, potentially expanding the enhancements it covers for dairy farmers. Our comments can be found  here.

NMPF highlighted the United States dairy industry’s commitment to antimicrobial stewardship, citing a large reduction in milk residues and closer relationships with veterinarians in comments submitted Jan. 6 to a docket opened by the Food and Drug Administration requesting information on zero-day withdrawal antibiotic usage.

The docket requested information regarding current milking frequencies and how zero-day withdrawal antibiotics are interpreted by U.S. dairy farmers. The industry participated in the Antimicrobial Resistance Challenge and has made the veterinary-client-patient-relationship a cornerstone of the National Dairy FARM Program, emphasizing the dedication of dairy farmers to the judicious use of antibiotics, which has led to lower detection of antibiotic residues in milk tankers. For example, in 1996, 0.104 percent of bulk milk pick-up tankers tested positive for a drug residue. By 2019, that rate had fallen more than 90 percent, to just 0.009 percent of bulk milk pick-up tankers.

NMPF answered two questions asked by FDA:

1. What milking frequencies do United States commercial dairy operations commonly use (e.g., two times per day, three times per day, greater than three times per day)? To what extent is each milking frequency used nationally, regionally, or within a particular sector (e.g., 25 percent of dairies nationally, 30 percent of dairies in the Midwest, 50 percent of dairies serviced by a veterinary practice, etc.)?
2. How do end users of new animal drugs interpret labeling that has a “zero-day withdrawal period” or “zero-day milk discard time,” or that states “no withdrawal period or milk discard time is required”?”

NMPF analyzed FARM data and conducted a survey in that received more than 100 responses to answer the questions. NMPF pointed out that FDA’s request may have reached only a small set of dairy farmers, making it important to use several data sources.  The U.S. dairy industry is committed to producing the highest quality, safe, abundant and affordable milk and dairy beef.

NMPF supports FDA-CVM periodically consulting with the dairy industry to ensure that the data packages generated to support the safety and effectiveness of veterinary medicinal products reflect current industry practices.

The margin for December 2019 under the Dairy Margin Coverage program was $11.95 per cwt., $0.26 per cwt. lower than the November DMC margin, with falling milk prices more than offsetting a drop in feed costs. The margin remains well above the trigger necessary for DMC assistance.

From November to December, the all-milk price dropped by $0.30 per cwt., to $20.70 per cet., and the DMC feed cost calculation was $0.04 lower. USDA’s DMC Decision Tool projected at the end of January that the DMC margin would fall sharply for that month and remain well below its late 2019 values through this spring, the slowly rise to just above $11.00 per cwt. by the fourth quarter of 2020. This drop would be mainly generated by a drop in milk prices. Other forecasts also point to a milk-price decline at the beginning of 2020, but not as steep as the USDA Tool projected. The USDA DMC Tool does not currently indicate that the DMC margin would drop below $10.00 per cwt. anytime during 2020, thus staying above the trigger level of $9.50/cwt. and generating no payments this year.

As of Jan. 27, USDA reported that 12,989 dairy operations, or 47.64 percent of operations with production histories, had enrolled in the 2020 DMC program. Many of these enrollees are operations that signed up for 5-year coverage last year. Enrolling in the DMC program at the generous coverage and affordable premiums available will always be a highly recommended risk-management option for dairy farmers.

The DMC information page on NMPF’s website offers a variety of educational resources to help farmers make better use of the program. NMPF also posted a new video explaining how farmers can benefit from the DMC.