The nation’s dairy farmers and dairy companies today expressed their opposition to new legislation in Congress that would allow the interstate sales of raw milk, saying that any additional availability of the product will increase the number of sicknesses and deaths of people who consume it.

The International Dairy Foods Association and the National Milk Producers Federation said that “the risks inherent in raw dairy products are not worth any imagined benefits to either consumers or producers of unpasteurized milk products. Raw milk skips the pasteurization safety process, and this is playing Russian roulette with the health of too many Americans – including many of our children.”

The two associations urged lawmakers to reject the “Interstate Milk Freedom Act of 2014,” a bill introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), which would repeal a long-standing ban on the sales across state lines of unpasteurized milk. Federal law currently gives states the discretion to regulate raw milk within their borders, but the dairy organizations expressed concern that repealing the interstate ban would greatly increase the production and consumption of a known health hazard.

“If this measure passes, those most vulnerable to dangerous pathogens – children – are the ones who will suffer the most. The benefits of consuming raw milk are illusory, but the painful costs of illness and death are very real,” said Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of the National Milk Productions Federation.

“Consumption of raw milk is a demonstrated public health risk. The link between raw milk and foodborne illness has been well‐documented in the scientific literature, with evidence spanning nearly 100 years. Raw milk is a key vehicle in the transmission of human pathogens, including E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella,” he stated.

Several states in recent years have considered and approved legislation expanding the sales of raw milk, even as the product has been repeatedly linked to serious illnesses from coast to coast.

“Our dairy industry benefits from a very high degree of consumer confidence – confidence built in large part due to the excellent food safety record of milk and dairy products,” said Connie Tipton, President and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association. “While choice is an important value, it should not pre‐empt consumers’ well‐being. To further ease the regulations surrounding the national sale of raw milk is an unnecessary risk to consumer safety.”

The two dairy groups said that the Centers for Disease Control has reported that nearly 75 percent of raw milk‐associated outbreaks have occurred in states where sale of raw milk was legal. Only one to two percent of reported foodborne outbreaks are attributed to dairy products. However, of those, over 70 percent have been attributed to raw milk and inappropriately‐aged raw milk cheeses.

“Seldom has the science behind public health policy been so clearly one-sided. Pathogenic bacteria can be found on any dairy farm, regardless of its cleanliness or the good intentions of its owner. This legislation is a threat to public health and should not be approved,” the organizations said.

 

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies within a $125-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA’s nearly 200 dairy processing members run nearly 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85 percent of the milk, cultured products, cheese, ice cream and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found online at www.idfa.org.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance the well being of dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. The members of NMPF’s cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S. milk supply, making NMPF the voice of more than 32,000 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies.

A bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate weighed in this week on the importance of rejecting European Union efforts to restrict the use of common food names, including a variety of popular, well-known cheeses, used by U.S. dairy producers and companies.

In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman and U.S. Agriculture Secretary (USDA) Tom Vilsack, over 50 U.S. senators urged the U.S. government to fight back against EU efforts to restrict how U.S. companies market cheese and other foods. Under the guise of protecting European geographical indications (GIs), EU has been using free trade agreements to prevent cheese makers in the United States and around the world from using common food names such as parmesan, feta, havarti, muenster and others.

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) applaud the Senate’s strong statement in support of the U.S. dairy industry, as it comes at a critical time in the development of a free trade agreement between the U.S. and the EU.

The letter, coauthored by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), expressed opposition to the EU’s gratuitous use of GIs as a protectionist measure, and condemned the resulting barriers to trade that are growing in key U.S. export markets. The senators asked that USTR and USDA work aggressively against the EU’s efforts to restrict commonly used cheese names because they would harm the ability of U.S. businesses to compete domestically or internationally.

“Over the past five years, U.S. cheese exports have been growing by an average of 40% annually, leading to a record high of $1.4 billion in U.S. cheese sales abroad last year,” said Tom Suber, president of USDEC. “Last year, the United States became the largest single country cheese exporter in the world. So it’s vital to ensure that unfounded barriers to trade do not hinder this continued growth path for our industry.”

“For consumers both here and abroad, the consequences of limiting familiar food names to just a few regional suppliers would be higher costs, fewer choices and greater confusion,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “No one country has any right to own common food names for their exclusive use. U.S. businesses should have the opportunity to offer their award-winning products, and let consumers decide what they want to buy.”

“This is why the work of the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), an independent organization USDEC founded two years ago, is so important,” elaborated Suber. “CCFN allows those with similar concerns about this issue in various countries to unite in order to promote a more common-sense and pro-trade approach to GI policies.”

Mulhern agreed, asserting, “It is American food companies that have helped popularize many cheeses with old world origins, leading to increased sales for all. The Senate’s message about the threat to U.S. dairy farmers and cheese makers posed by this outrageous proposed trade barrier reinforces the importance of our work.”

 

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) is a non-profit, independent membership organization that represents the global trade interests of U.S. dairy producers, proprietary processors and cooperatives, ingredient suppliers and export traders. Its mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and assist the U.S. industry to increase its global dairy ingredient sales and exports of U.S. dairy products. USDEC accomplishes this through programs in market development that build global demand for U.S. dairy products, resolve market access barriers and advance industry trade policy goals. USDEC is supported by staff across the United States and overseas in Mexico, South America, Asia, Middle East and Europe.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), based in Arlington, Va., develops and carries out policies that advance the well-being of U.S. dairy producers and the cooperatives they collectively own. The members of NMPF’s cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S, milk supply, making NMPF the voice of nearly 32,000 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies.

With the new farm bill having been signed into law (left), attention has shifted to how the Agriculture Department will implement the groundbreaking margin insurance program for dairy farmers.

The program—the most significant rewrite of federal dairy policy in a generation—refocuses the dairy safety net from propping up prices, to protecting margins. In that way, it will help address the volatility of both milk prices and feed costs, which have become a major problem in recent years.

By limiting how much production growth can be covered under margin insurance, the new program will also help address imbalances in supply and demand.

The farm bill requires the Agriculture Department to officially establish the Margin Protection Program by September 1. NMPF staff held preliminary meetings in February with USDA staff on implementation.

NMPF will be working closely with USDA’s Farm Service Agency staff to ensure implementation is as effective and farmer-friendly as possible. In the meantime, the MILC program remains in effect through the first part of 2014, although milk prices are expected to be high enough so that it won’t generate any payments.

A detailed explanation of all the farm bill dairy provisions is available online. In addition, NMPF is refashioning its Future for Dairy website into a hub for information on the margin insurance program and its implementation.

*Photo credit to Michigan Milk Producers Association.

A rash of news stories in February has focused on the potential impact of rising farm-level milk prices, stoking fears of record-high consumer prices for dairy foods.

NMPF has provided important context to the issue, reminding the media that farm prices are just now climbing back to where they were in 2007-2008, before the Great Recession devastated dairy markets.

Also, of course, dairy farmers don’t have any control over retail milk prices, which vary widely from store to store. And farmers still get only about 35 cents of every dollar the consumer spends on milk and dairy products.

Farm prices are rising because increased global demand for dairy products is being met in part with U.S. exports, which are now more than 15 percent of total U.S. production. As a result, the supply of milk in this country is not keeping up with demand.

Last year, milk production rose just four-tenths of one percent, as feed costs, weather, and past low prices combined to keep a lid on farmers’ ability to expand output. Even with the recent price rise, however, dairy food inflation has lagged behind both the general inflation rate and the rise in all food costs for a decade.

NMPF continues to push immigration reform efforts on Capitol Hill. Recently, the organization co-hosted a briefing for congressional offices with other agricultural organizations, and the Partnership for a New American Economy, to highlight agriculture’s struggle with the nation’s current immigration system. Among the speakers was a dairy farmer who spoke about the challenges he faces with securing workers and the inadequacies of the H-2A visa program for the dairy industry.

In the coming weeks, NMPF will focus its efforts on continued outreach to House members, particularly those in the Republican majority whose support will be necessary for immigration reform’s success.

In the first two months of 2014, Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) provided export assistance on 108 sales of cheese, 39 butter sales, and six whole milk powder sales.

Of 364 assistance requests received, CWT will provide assistance on 26.1 million pounds of Cheddar, Gouda, and Monterey Jack cheeses, 10.4 million pounds of 82% milk fat butter, and 698,895 pounds of whole milk powder. The products will go to 19 different countries and will be delivered through August 2014.

The milk equivalent on a milk fat basis of these sales is 475.3 million pounds of milk. Combined with the 2013 CWT-assisted sales scheduled to ship in the first six months of 2014, the total milk equivalent is equal to 25% of USDA’s projected increase in total milk marketings for all of 2014.

February was an active month for NMPF on some frustrating trade issues. It opened with Russia blocking entry of a shipment of Chobani yogurt meant for U.S. athletes at the Sochi Olympics, which called attention to the years-long Russian ban on the entry of U.S. dairy products. And it ended with NMPF joining the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) in chiding Canada and Japan for dragging their feet in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

The Russian yogurt blockade was the latest manifestation of a three-year-old embargo of U.S. dairy products that has U.S. interests increasingly angry. A large shipment of Sochi-bound Chobani yogurt was refused entry, even though the company was a major sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team.

“Russia has turned a cold shoulder to many U.S. businesses trying to ship dairy products,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “That’s despite three years of our trying to prove their safety.” Russia closed its market to U.S. dairy products in 2010 by changing what it required on a health certificate that accompanies dairy products imported into Russia and its Customs Union partners.

In the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, Canada and Japan have resisted allowing additional imports U.S. dairy products. After the latest round of talks, NMPF and USDEC issued a statement saying the United States should not allow the process to drag on indefinitely.

“It’s time to finish the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, including resolving the agricultural trade issues,” said USDEC President Tom Suber. “The principle of creating comprehensive market access is too important to this and future trade agreements. Therefore, if Japan and Canada are not committed to this goal, we need to move forward without them.”

NMPF’s Mulhern added that U.S. interests are ready to eliminate all tariffs on dairy products from both countries provided that Japan and Canada do the same. “If they are not willing to offer realistic market access to the United States, Japan and Canada are not serious about being part of TPP,” he said.

Through its membership in the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), NMPF met last month with U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Michael Froman and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to help convey dairy producers’ strong concerns about the continued expansion of barriers to commonly named dairy products. A number of companies and associations, representing both dairy producers and processors, conveyed a unified industry position in opposition to the EU’s efforts to limit U.S. competition by confiscating common food names. The fly-in meetings also included discussions the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and with Congressional staff.

The EU has been actively using its free trade agreements to seek to block U.S. companies from using many common product names (e.g., romano, muenster, parmesan, feta, and more). It executes this goal by terming those generic terms “geographical indications” (GIs) and claiming that only certain European producers should be authorized to use them. The EU has been clear that it sees the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) as a way to put those restrictions in place in the U.S. market itself – thereby impacting not just U.S. exports, but also domestic sales. The meetings with leading U.S. government officials were intended to provide NMPF and other industry leaders with an opportunity to underscore the U.S. industry’s strong opposition to the EU’s latest in a long series of protectionist strategies.

The Food and Drug Administration announced this week that companies currently exporting to China or seeking to do so in the near future must register their dairy and infant formula storage facilities with FDA to be included on the list of establishments eligible for export to China. Members may recall that last month NMPF provided notice that FDA was encouraging all companies interested in shipping to China to register their plants with FDA. This latest clarification from FDA is in addition to that earlier notice.

The deadline to include plant and storage facilities on FDA’s list and avoid the possibility of disruption in exports to China is Friday, March 14th. Any requests FDA receives after that date will not be on the initial list transmitted by FDA to China but would be provided subsequently at a later stage.

In order to register your storage facility, please email Esther Lazar an attachment on company letterhead with the following information:

1. Business name and address.
2. Name, telephone number, and email (if available) of contact person.
3. List of products presently stored that may be shipped to China and those intended to be stored and shipped.
4. Name and address of the storage facility for each product.
5. Name of any federal, state, or local governmental agencies that inspect the facility, along with the government assigned Facility Establishment Identifier (FEI) number and date of last inspection.
6. Copy of last inspection notice and, if other than an FDA inspection, copy of last inspection report.

Only one out of 7,200 milk tankers tested positive for antibiotic residues last year, according to the National Milk Drug Residue Database 2013 report, released last month by the Food and Drug Administration. The new report showed that the decade-long decline in bulk milk samples testing positive for residues is continuing. Of the approximately 3.2 million milk pickup tankers tested, only 445 (or 0.014%) yielded a positive – down from 0.017% in 2012. This is the seventh year in a row that the percentage of positive tankers has declined.

Additionally, not a single sample of the 40,435 consumer-packaged pasteurized milk products tested positive for animal drug residues. Data from four of the last five years have not yielded a single positive result for pasteurized products.

Meanwhile, NMPF continues to monitor the progress of the FDA-CVM raw milk sampling assignment. A final report is expected soon.

The Food and Drug Administration’s long-awaited proposal to revamp the Nutrition Facts panel on packaged foods, released last month, includes both pluses and minuses for dairy.

NMPF applauded the added label focus on two key nutrients in milk, potassium and vitamin D, saying they “will help consumers better understand the important role that dairy plays in a healthy diet.”

But NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern also said plans to list “added sugars” on the panel – based on recommendations that Americans reduce their intake of calories from added sugar – need clarification. “We look forward to working with the FDA to address this issue,” Mulhern said.

According to the FDA, the Nutrition Facts changes reflect new dietary recommendations, consensus reports and national survey data, including the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, and intake data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The FDA also considered comments from the public.

Other proposed changes would update serving-size requirements to better align with how much people really eat and present calorie and nutrition information for some products for the whole package, in addition to per serving. Serving sizes for ice cream will increase, but will decrease for yogurt. The new label also features a fresh design to highlight key nutritional concepts that are important in addressing public health problems like obesity and heart disease.

Mulhern said NMPF is open to improvements that will help consumers make informed choices. “We applaud highlighting potassium and vitamin D – two nutrients most Americans are not consuming enough of,” he said. Vitamin D is important in bone health and potassium is beneficial in lowering blood pressure. The panel already highlights two other key dairy nutrients, calcium, and protein.

The changes would affect all packaged foods except meat, poultry and processed egg products, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

NMPF thanked the Agriculture Department last week for allowing states to substitute some yogurt for milk in the federal government’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program.

The dairy industry had pushed for the change for those who are lactose intolerant or who might not drink milk for other reasons. Only low-fat and nonfat yogurt will be allowed except for very young children.

“Like milk, yogurt is an excellent source of protein, calcium and other nutrients,” said NMPF Vice President for Nutrition Beth Briczinski. “And it’s preferred by some over milk. That’s why the Institute of Medicine, as well as the dairy industry, had recommended allowing yogurt as a substitute for milk in the WIC food packages several years ago.”

USDA initially rejected that recommendation, citing concerns over cost. However, in final regulations to be issued formally next week, USDA is reversing that decision. States will now be allowed to authorize WIC recipients to purchase up to a quart of yogurt monthly as a substitute for one quart of milk.

“This is a common-sense decision that gives states more flexibility to meet the needs of WIC participants,” Briczinski said. “Yogurt is convenient, popular and comparable to milk nutritionally. WIC participants should have the option to purchase yogurt instead of milk, especially if they have difficulty digesting milk.”

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children is designed to improve the health of low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants and young children. Milk and other dairy products figure prominently in the WIC food packages and account for nearly a third of all purchases under the program.