WASHINGTON, DC — “The Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC) strongly applauds the Senate Judiciary Committee for approving S. 744, the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill, out of committee on a strong bi-partisan vote of 13-5.

“The legislation includes agricultural provisions that reflect the agreement that the AWC and the United Farm Workers union reached earlier this spring. These provisions are vital to ensuring that America’s farmers and ranchers can find the workers they need to pick crops, prune trees or care for animals.

“Agriculture stands united in support of the agriculture provisions contained in the Senate bill, and we look forward to seeing the process advance to the Senate floor after the Memorial Day recess.”

About the Agriculture Workforce Coalition

The AWC brings together organizations representing the diverse needs of agricultural employers across the country. It serves as the unified voice of agriculture in the effort to ensure that America’s farmers, ranchers and growers have access to a stable and secure workforce.

To help achieve this goal, the AWC has reached a landmark agreement with the United Farm Workers union that presents a viable solution to agriculture’s labor needs. The proposal includes both an earned adjustment in status for current agricultural employees who presently lack legal status and a program to ensure an adequate farm workforce in the future. Also, unlike current programs such as H-2A, this agreement would mean that all types of producers—including both those with seasonal labor needs and ones with year-round labor needs—have access to the workforce they need to remain productive and competitive.

To learn more about AWC, visit our website at www.agworkforcecoalition.org.

 

The National Milk Producers Federation, 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 30 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.

From Jerry Kozak, President and CEO, NMPF:

“The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) is pleased with today’s vote in the House Agriculture Committee in support of the Dairy Security Act (DSA). The committee’s decision to once again reject an amendment by Reps. Bob Goodlatte and David Scott that would have undermined the House Farm Bill’s dairy safety net is gratifying to the thousands of dairy farmers across the country who support the DSA.

“We very much appreciate the efforts of committee Chairman Frank Lucas and ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson for their leadership in including the Dairy Security Act in the Farm Bill. The DSA provides the best combination of effective risk management for dairy farmers, while minimizing farm program costs to the taxpayer.

“Dairy farmers have labored for four years to develop the reforms contained in the DSA. We have worked with leaders of both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to construct a new safety net that offers dairy farmers more effective protection than current policy. We appreciate the fact that House Agriculture Committee members are concerned with fashioning the best dairy policy possible, and we are heartened by their decision today to back the DSA.

“The House committee has now twice rejected the Goodlatte-Scott effort to undermine establishment of a workable national dairy policy. As the farm bill moves to the House floor, we hope that the committee’s decision today will be the final word on the matter. It is time for dairy processors to end their campaign of divisiveness, and assist us in moving the farm bill toward completion.

“The dairy industry needs the stability that the DSA will provide, and we need it now. The House version of the bill is on the right path, and its dairy title now matches the farm bill approved Tuesday by the Senate Agriculture Committee. We urge Congress to move quickly to complete action on the farm bill this summer.”

 

The National Milk Producers Federation, 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 30 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.

ARLINGTON, VA – A new analysis of the key Farm Bill dairy proposals under consideration in the House Agriculture Committee finds that the Dairy Security Act (DSA) is better for farmers – as well as taxpayers – compared to the Goodlatte-Scott alternative proposal that will be offered in the committee deliberations tomorrow.

The new report, prepared by University of Missouri agricultural economists Scott Brown and Daniel Madison, assessed how the Dairy Security Act would have affected farm-level economics during the period 2009 through 2012 compared with the impact of an alternative plan offered by Reps. Goodlatte and Scott (G-S). The DSA program offers dairy farmers margin insurance, coupled with a market stabilization mechanism that improves farm prices during low periods while also controlling the program’s cost. The Goodlatte-Scott amendment lacks the market stabilization feature.

According to Brown and Madison’s economic modelling, the DSA would have increased net farm revenues by $0.55 per cwt. over the period studied, while the Goodlatte-Scott amendment would have raised farm revenue by only $0.48 per cwt. More important from a budgetary standpoint, the Goodlatte-Scott proposal would have hiked government expenditures by $1 billion over the 2009 to 2012 period compared to the DSA, because G-S would encourage more milk production – even at lower margins.

“This new analysis gets to the heart of the question that our lawmakers must answer: do they support a plan that will save the government money while helping farmers, or will they instead endorse an alternative that results in the worst of all worlds — lower farm milk prices and higher taxpayer outlays?,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF. “Regardless of your politics, the Dairy Security Act is the more fiscally responsible choice.”

Contrary to claims that the DSA would short the market of milk, affecting both the domestic and export aspects of the U.S. dairy sector, the Missouri report found that “Milk production on average is virtually unchanged under either option.” Brown’s report did note that the DSA’s market stabilization program would slow milk output in response to market signals, but that it would not have been in place frequently enough to produce long-term changes in milk production.

 

The National Milk Producers Federation, 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 30 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.

From Jerry Kozak, President and CEO, NMPF:

“We commend the members of the Senate Agriculture Committee for approving a farm bill today to transform dairy policy, while making necessary improvements in other farm and nutrition programs. The dairy title of the committee’s bill contains the long-awaited reforms offered by the Dairy Security Act, which provides the best combination of effective risk management for dairy farmers, while minimizing program costs to the taxpayer.

“Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) has again proved to be an effective leader of her committee, and we thank her, Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS), and the other members of the Agriculture Committee for working together on the overall farm bill. Dairy farmers look forward to that same leadership as the bill reaches the Senate floor in the coming days.

“We also urge members of the House Agriculture Committee, during their markup of the farm bill tomorrow, to approve the Dairy Security Act and oppose an effort by Rep. Bob Goodlatte that aims to weaken the bill’s protection of dairy farmers. The Dairy Security Act is the best approach to providing milk producers an effective safety net, while avoiding a scenario that Goodlatte’s amendment could cause where dairy margins are low for long periods, hurting farmers and taxpayers alike.”

 

The National Milk Producers Federation, 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 30 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.

The Agriculture Committees in both the Senate and House will be working this week on the Farm Bill, with the fate of a new safety net for dairy farmers hanging in the balance.

 

On Tuesday, May 14th, the Senate Agriculture Committee will mark up its version of the Farm Bill. The Dairy Security Act (DSA), the reform packaged supported by dairy farmers, will be included as part of committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow’s overall Farm Bill draft. NMPF issued a statement last Thursday thanking the committee leadership for its support of the DSA.

The next day, on May 15th, the House Agriculture Committee will work on its own version of the Farm Bill. The House committee released its version of the farm bill Friday afternoon, and that bill also contains the Dairy Security Act as its dairy program provisions. While committee Chairman Rep. Frank Lucas and ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson both support the DSA, the committee is expected to debate an alternative approach, the so-called Dairy Freedom Act, which would effectively gut the DSA.

NMPF has been working hard on a bipartisan basis to build support for the DSA, and expose the flaws of the Dairy Freedom Act, which will be offered by Reps. Bob Goodlatte and David Scott. NMPF circulated a letter signed by its members, along with nearly two dozen other national and state associations, demonstrating the depth and breadth of support for the DSA among the dairy farmer community. The letter reiterates the reasons why members of the House and Senate should support the Dairy Security Act, including the fact that the DSA has the support of farmers; it is the fiscally-responsible approach to providing a dairy farmer safety net; farmers have already compromised with processors by eliminating three programs and moving to a voluntary program featuring the market stabilization component; and the real threat to the future of our dairy industry is not the DSA, but rather a processor-backed approach that will generate cheap milk and lower prices for our farmers.

Farmers can contact their elected officials in support of the DSA by using our online Dairy GREAT tool.

The Senate Judiciary Committee last week began consideration of S. 744, the comprehensive immigration reform bill containing the crucial agriculture worker provisions backed by NMPF.

The Senate legislation is the product of NMPF’s efforts in recent years to resolve the employment needs of dairy farmers, and agriculture overall. This legislation under consideration includes farm worker provisions crafted by the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC) – of which NMPF is a member – and the United Farm Workers (UFW). More than 300 amendments have been filed to the Senate legislation. Many of these could have a direct or indirect impact on farmers, and NMPF staff members are carefully weighing positions on each. Despite the sensitive nature of the immigration issue, NMPF is optimistic that this legislation will advance through the Judiciary committee with the vital reforms needed by dairy farmers as part of the package. The committee will likely take a number of days to complete consideration of the bill.

Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte recently introduced H. R. 1773, the Agricultural Guestworker Act. While the AWC remains committed to the agreement reached with UFW, the coalition remains deeply engaged with Rep. Goodlatte and other House members on this matter. The House Judiciary Committee will have an agriculture-focused hearing this week to begin the process of developing a farm worker immigration plan. While the path ahead remains unclear in the House, NMPF will continue working to ensure that the needs of dairy farmers are addressed.

In April, Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) received a total of 126 requests for export assistance from member cooperatives. Of those, 28 counter offers made by CWT were accepted, resulting in 3.9 million pounds of cheese and 5.2 million pounds of butter being sold, primarily to customers in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Through April, CWT has assisted 10 member cooperatives in making 308 export sales totaling 50.9 million pounds of cheese, 51.7 million pounds of butter, 44,092 pounds of anhydrous milk fat, and 218,258 pounds of whole milk powder. The product will be shipped through October of this year. It is equivalent to 1.6 billion pounds of milk, which exceeded USDA’s estimate of the increase in U.S. milk production in 2013.

CWT-assisted shipments of cheese and butter in 2013, through April, totaled 52.9 million pounds of American-type cheeses and 29.9 million pounds of 82% milkfat butter. The majority of cheese will be going to Asia, while the majority of butter will be shipped to the Middle East and North Africa.

NMPF’s efforts to revitalize the REAL® Seal will take a big leap forward this spring, as a new campaign to build interest in the seal through social media is being launched. The campaign will galvanize interest among consumers in real, American-made dairy products, using a new Facebook page, blogger outreach, and digital advertising. The program will be launched in time for June Dairy Month.

The revamped REAL Seal® Facebook page will create a new voice and visual feel to engage and cultivate target audiences, especially moms and heads of households consuming dairy products. The page’s content will include interaction-provoking updates, multimedia presentations, contests, polls, and quizzes. One of the elements of the launch will feature a “Name the Character” contest. Kids submitting the winning name will receive a packet of coupons provided by product marketers using the REAL® Seal.

The blogger outreach will generate engagement, online conversation, and awareness surrounding the REAL® Seal campaign by driving consumers to official REAL® Seal platforms, and by interacting with bloggers writing about the mom/parenting, food/cooking, health/wellness, and lifestyle topic areas. Starting in July, a special Buyer’s Guide section will be added to the REAL® Seal website, where consumers will be able to go to find REAL® dairy products, foods made with REAL® dairy products and restaurants that use and serve only REAL® dairy products. REAL® Seal users will have the option of providing links to their company’s website as well.

For the second time in two years, state public health and agriculture department officials participating in the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) turned down a proposal to reduce the maximum allowable level of somatic cell counts in milk.

At its meeting in Indianapolis last month, the NCIMS voting delegates – a group of state regulators overseeing milk safety rules – considered a proposal sponsored by NMPF to reduce the maximum threshold of allowable somatic cells in milk at the farm level from the current 750,000 cells/mL, down to 400,000, starting in 2015. But on a close vote, the delegates rejected the proposal, meaning that the status quo threshold of 750,000 will remain for domestic milk production – putting the U.S. “behind the curve when it comes to milk quality standards,” according to Jerry Kozak, NMPF President & CEO.

On a related decision with trade policy implications, the NCIMS delegates approved a proposal to permanently allow foreign dairy marketers to participate in the U.S. Grade A program, by permitting required sanitation evaluations of overseas dairy farms and processing facilities to be carried out by third-party, non-governmental inspectors.

“Dairy farmers in the world’s major milk producing regions have made great strides in reducing somatic cell count levels. Regulatory systems around the world have moved to incorporate these lower somatic cell count levels, and the U.S. needs to be on board with that process, not be left watching from the side of the road by the failure to update our standards,” said Kozak. “We continue to be perplexed by the inconsistency of those state regulators who voted to make it easier to import Grade A dairy products into the United States by outsourcing mandatory inspections, while at the same time rejecting efforts to facilitate the export of American dairy products,” Kozak said.

A similar somatic cell count proposal was defeated by the NCIMS in 2011. Since then, the European Union has moved ahead with a somatic cell count limit of 400,000 for dairy products being exported by the U.S. to EU member countries.

NMPF also expressed disappointment at the NCIMS delegates’ rejection this week of a resolution calling for the enhanced enforcement of federal labeling regulations affecting the marketing of imitation Grade A dairy products, such as soy, hemp and rice “milks,” and soy and rice “yogurt.”  The recommendation was also opposed by representatives of the dairy processing community.

NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) applauded the United States’ decision last month to welcome Japan into Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade negotiations.

“Japan greatly enhances the potential value of the TPP to U.S. dairy producers and processors,” said Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president for strategic initiatives and trade policy. “Japan is the third-largest economy in the world and already a major dairy importer. Reducing excessive tariffs and removing non-tariff barriers to trade will significantly increase U.S. dairy export opportunities, which will help drive overall U.S. dairy industry growth.”

U.S. suppliers shipped $284 million worth of cheese, whey proteins, milk powder and other dairy products to Japan in 2012. It is the fifth-largest U.S. dairy export market, despite substantial market access barriers in many of the biggest dairy categories.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office officially notified Congress of the American government’s intention to enter into TPP trade talks in 2009. At that time, it did so with the idea that the TPP would eventually expand from the initial eight participants—Australia, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam—to the entire Asia-Pacific, thus expanding the economic significance of the deal.

A group of 130 members of the dairy industry met last month in Indianapolis for the 2013 National Dairy Producers Conference (NDPC). The conference kicked off with a behind-the-scenes tour of Fair Oaks Farms. The program included topics such as understanding the importance of immigrant labor, technology and innovation, agricultural lending, dairy beef quality assurance, high feed prices, and international trade issues, among others.

Presentations and photos from the conference are available at www.nmpf.org/NDPC.

The 15th joint annual conference of the American Butter Institute (ABI) and the American Dairy Products Institute (ADPI) was held April 28-30, in Chicago.  This year’s meeting drew over 850 industry executives, government officials, academia, and media.

The two-and-a-half-day meeting addressed the manufactured dairy product industry’s latest challenges and opportunities, featuring presentations from a wide range of speakers. The opening panel discussion outlined topics and issues that would affect business, including weather conditions, feed costs, global economic and population growth, as well as production and pricing.

Other topics covered included industry relations and opportunities with China, dairy industry traceability issues, best practices to follow in the event of a recall, and uses of milk protein concentrate as an ingredient. Top industry chief executives also shared their vision of opportunities for the dairy industry in future years.

The 2013 conference also featured a silent auction that was held during the Grand Chicago Reception, which raised $5,000 to benefit the Jim Page Memorial Scholarship Fund. In addition, Phillip S. Tong, Professor of Dairy Science and Director of the Dairy Products Technology Center at California Polytechnic State University, received the 2013 ADPI Award of Merit.

The ABI Board Meeting was held on Tuesday, April 30^th, where the board elected Josh White, Hoogwegt, U.S., Inc.; William Schreiber, O-AT-KA Milk Products Coop, Inc.; and Keith Murfield, United Dairymen of Arizona to serve on the ABI Board for 2013-2014. The board also got an opportunity to listen to presentations on ABI’s Strategic Planning Meeting, Butter Economic & Market Outlook , an update on the Butter Promotion Program, as well as learn more about the REAL® Seal and Cooperative Working Together.

The complimentary social hours held each afternoon in the exhibit hall and the sizeable receptions held on Monday and Tuesday evenings provided abundant opportunities to network with producers, marketers, suppliers, distributors, and brokers of manufactured dairy products.