Ag Committee Urged to Remove Milk Supply Limits
US - The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) is disappointed that the Dairy Market Stabilisation Programme has been included in the House Agriculture Committee chairman’s mark of the Farm Bill. The stabilisation programme is designed to limit milk supplies and to periodically raise milk prices.
9 July 2012
1 minute read
IDFA says that the programme will reduce dairy farmers’ incomes at the same time that a new subsidised revenue insurance plan enhances their incomes. Taxpayer organizations, consumer groups, dairy food manufacturers and many dairy producers – including the second largest dairy co-op in the country – have all spoken out against supply management programmes like the DMSP.
"The stabilisation programme will hamstring a growing dairy export business, discourage investment into processing facilities and ultimately hurt new or expanding dairy farms by limiting increased demand for more milk production," said Jerry Slominski, senior vice president for legislative and economic affairs at IDFA.
IDFA urges the committee to provide revenue or margin insurance for dairy farmers without also mandating that they participate in a program that will impose government control over the supply and demand for milk. Such an approach will help dairy farmers through difficult years, yet allow our dairy industry to continue to expand, creating jobs and helping the economy.
TheCattleSite News Desk
