NMPF President & CEO Gregg Doud said a port strike across the East Coast could cost dairy $32 million a week, and U.S. agriculture as a whole $320 million a week, in an interview with Fox Business. “We have got to make sure that we have these markets open,” Doud said, noting that even a short-term strike can cause longer-term disruptions.
Alan Bjerga, NMPF Executive Vice President of Communications, discusses how NMPF’s strong presence at the World Dairy Expo shows the breadth of the organization’s service to its members in an interview with WEKZ, Janesville, WI. NMPF-affiliated offerings include a panel on Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization, a seminar on succession planning, a look at women’s leadership in dairy and H5N1 biosecurity management on dairy farms. The National Dairy FARM Program will also be out in full force, Bjerga noted.
Shawna Morris, NMPF’s executive vice president for trade policy & global affairs, explains how Colombia moving to impose an additional tariff on U.S. milk powder exports is unjustified and unhelpful for dairy farmers and consumers in both nations. Morris speaks in an interview with RFD-TV.
By Jaime Castaneda, Executive Vice President, National Milk Producers Federation
NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) are working to preserve market access for American dairy exports to Colombia following the Colombian government’s abrupt July 5 decision to initiate a politically driven “subsidies and countervailing measures” investigation into milk powder imports form the United States.
The move has little to do with U.S. milk and everything to do with Colombia’s domestic politics. In an effort to reverse slipping popularity with voters, the Colombian government has decided to misuse trade tools usually reserved for private industry to counter legitimate damage from “dumped” product sold at below market rates. In contrast to this, Colombia’s government has instead launched this case on its own, alleging that U.S. milk powder exports from 2020 to 2023 were unduly subsidized by U.S. government programs and damaged Colombian dairy producers. Unfortunately, due to the investigation’s political nature, the Colombian government could impose tariffs on imported U.S. milk powder products as early as September 16. That would be certain to stifle trade to the market.
NMPF and USDEC have been working with U.S. exporting cooperatives and companies, legal teams, and the U.S. government to submit a strong, data-driven defense proving that this investigation is without merit.
In their counterarguments, NMPF and USDEC note that the investigation is baseless for many reasons, including:
Because of the political nature of this investigation, a fair result is not guaranteed, which means that U.S. government intervention may be necessary. NMPF and USDEC are urging U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to use all available tools to respond forcefully should Colombia impose tariffs on U.S. milk powder imports despite the lack of evidence meriting such a result.
Congress is also paying attention. A letter sent by the bipartisan leads of the U.S. House of Representative’s Agricultural Trade Caucus to the Colombian Ambassador to the United States highlights the U.S. dairy industry’s long-standing commitment to work with its Colombian counterparts and encouraged the two industries to work together to strengthen the dairy sectors in both countries instead of pursuing meritless investigations.
Colombia’s investigation will play out over months, starting with preliminary results and potential provisional measures as early as September 16, followed by a public hearing and additional comment periods.
At stake is $70 million in annual U.S. milk powder exports to Colombia.
While not a trivial amount by any means, this investigation could also set a dangerous precedent for like-minded governments to imitate. Over the past several years, protectionist sentiments have grown around the world, and Latin America is no exception. The region has become a battleground in the effort to preserve existing trade opportunities, flaring up from Peru and Ecuador to Brazil and Mexico.
While cooperating with the investigation, NMPF and USDEC continue to engage with policymakers and allied organizations to seek a positive conclusion. Regardless of which way this investigation turns out, it’s important for the United States to respond forcefully and let its trading partners know that such maneuvers will not be tolerated.
This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on Sept. 5, 2024.
NMPF Executive Vice President Alan Bjerga talks about how dairy can offer nutritious solutions to all consumers in an interview with RFD-TV. The current drafting of a new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is featuring concerns over lactose intolerance and the nutritional barrier it presents some consumers. Bjerga points out the wide range of low-lactose and lactose-free products, which represents an important part of dairy’s future.
NMPF Executive Vice President of Communications Alan Bjerga discusses the plethora of low- and no-lactose dairy products available to meet America’s nutritional needs in an interview with Dairy Radio Now. With societal concerns about equitable nutrition access informing conversations over the upcoming Dietary Guidelines, dairy needs to make it clear that it’s a nutrition solution for all, Bjerga says.
By Paul Bleiberg, Executive Vice President, Government Relations, National Milk Producers Federation
Milk and dairy products supply 13 essential nutrients, including three that continue to be identified as nutrients of public health concern: calcium, potassium, and vitamin D.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services have historically recognized dairy’s important value in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated once every five years and are due next year. The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines should continue to maintain dairy as a distinct food group, one that does not include plant-based imitation products that are not nutritionally equivalent to real milk and do not deliver dairy’s unique nutrient package.
But before the new guidelines are completed, Congress has the opportunity this year to highlight dairy as a nutrition powerhouse that cannot be easily replicated. Below the radar of a tumultuous presidential election year, the bipartisan DAIRY PRIDE Act, introduced in both houses of Congress, has steadily picked up additional support, with nearly 50 members now cosponsoring the House measure.
The DAIRY PRIDE Act directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enforce dairy standards of identity, which are rooted in dairy’s critical nutrient profile and the fact that milk is the product of an animal that can’t be replicated by substitute ingredients or concocted in a lab. Standards of identity were developed to promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers. These terms, including “milk” and “cheese,” have come to carry distinct meaning in the minds of consumers, with built-in expectations for nutritional values.
FDA’s continued failure to require the proper labeling of plant-based alternative products is a public health problem, plain and simple. When consumers make misguided, but well-intentioned, decisions to purchase imitation products in place of real dairy, the result will be more and more Americans not meeting the recommended intake of dairy outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Multiple public health organizations have given voice to this concern, urging that young children not be fed most plant-based alternatives in place of real dairy as their nutrition profiles are largely not equivalent.
After years of anticipation, FDA issued proposed guidance last year intended to address this topic. But while the agency acknowledged the nutritional inferiority of most plant-based imitation products relative to real dairy, FDA still made no attempt to dissuade the makers of these products from labeling them using dairy terms – the true cause of consumer confusion.
The DAIRY PRIDE Act would fix this by deeming mislabeled dairy imitators as misbranded. It then would require FDA to promptly require the proper labeling of alternative products – without the unfettered use of dairy terms. This pro-public health, truth-in-labeling bill would spotlight dairy as a unique source of essential, underconsumed nutrients and can swiftly pass Congress before year’s end.
This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on Aug. 15, 2024.
NMPF’s Executive Vice President for Communications & Industry Relations Alan Bjerga discusses the need to support dairy in the next iteration of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Dairy products provide high-quality nourishment and serve a wide swathe of Americans, and the guidelines themselves need to be the product of a science-based, deliberative process, Bjerga said in an interview with RFD-TV.
Stephen Cain, senior director of economic research and analysis for the National Milk Producers Federation, said NMPF is “very pleased with the recommendation that USDA has come up with” for Federal Milk Marketing Order Modernization. “Fundamentally, USDA agreed with our premise and methodology for all the changes we were asking for,” said Cain in an interview with the National Association of Farm Broadcasters.
By Clay Detlefsen, Chief Counsel, National Milk Producers Federation
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) has worked with federal agencies on cyber issues for more than two decades. While the priorities and likely types of threats have shifted as technology has advanced, food and agriculture entities must take cybersecurity in all its forms seriously.
Last month, seven U.S. government agencies plus Canadian and British agencies worked together to create a fact sheet to address pro-Russian “hacktivist” activity among four of the nation’s 16 critical infrastructure sectors — water and wastewater, dams, energy, and food and agriculture.
Most people think of ransomware when they think of hackers. This involves people breaking into systems and demanding payment to unblock the data or system they have blocked. This is a very real concern, and the food processing industry alone has as many as 100 or more ransomware attacks per year. However, ransomware is not the food and agriculture sector’s only risk. This new government fact sheet focuses instead on industrial control systems that are attacked not to be extorted for ransom but rather to destroy the systems and negatively affect our nation’s critical infrastructure.
By exploiting software weaknesses, weak passwords, and passwords without two-factor authorization for internet-connected operational technology (OT) devices, pro-Russia hacktivists can cause disruptions that could range from mildly annoying to catastrophic. For example, already in 2024 pro-Russia hacktivists have manipulated access points known as human machine interfaces (HMIs) at water and wastewater systems in North America and Europe. The hackers altered machine settings, turned off alarm mechanisms, and changed administrative passwords to lock out operators.
While disruptions like these are — for now — smaller scale, a targeted attack that could disrupt or destroy enough infrastructure to cause chaos remains a real risk. For dairy, that risk is largely borne by processors, which have many more internet-connected systems than an average dairy farm. Still, the risk to farms rises as more dairies integrate high-tech and internet-connected devices into their operations. Processors and farms should be particularly diligent with any internet-connected devices that could cause serious harm if compromised, such as refrigeration equipment or rotary and robotic milking equipment.
The fact sheet linked above identifies numerous resources that help improve an entity’s cybersecurity, along with several recommendations that will help ward off ransomware attacks and attacks on OT. Among many holistic and system-wide mitigations, government agencies recommend three actions to take today if you have systems that may be open to attack:
NMPF will continue the dialog on this issue with federal partners and will keep the dairy industry informed. In the meantime, everyone is encouraged to share the government fact sheet with anyone who might find it useful.
This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on July 11, 2024.
Dairy farmers have reasons to be pleased with the draft proposal for Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization, NMPF Executive Vice President Alan Bjerga said in an interview with Dairy Radio Now. That said, the process isn’t complete. Farmers still have a 60-day comment period and a final producer vote before any final proposal is implemented. NMPF is ready to lead, as it has throughout, Bjerga said.
