The recent release of the official text of the free trade agreement between the European Union and Canada has triggered dairy industry charges that the authors are attempting to further restrict U.S. access to the Canadian cheese market.

Dairy trade groups including NMPF, the International Dairy Foods Association and the U.S. Dairy Export Council said the text includes objectionable provisions on geographical indications, and reallocates some of Canada’s import quota for cheese from the United States and other countries to the EU.

The geographical indications provisions are particularly alarming, the groups said, because they grant the EU automatic protection for five commonly used cheese names in violation of both international trade commitments and Canadian intellectual property law.

The cheese names are asiago, feta, fontina, gorgonzola and munster. Under the agreement, manufacturers that produced these cheeses before last October can continue to use the generic names, but others will be required to use qualifiers, such as asiago-type, feta-style or imitation munster cheese.

Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president of both NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, said Canada added insult to injury by both watering down the already-limited access of U.S. exporters to the Canadian cheese market and by restricting access U.S. exporters expect to gain through a separate Trans-Pacific free trade agreement.

“This is yet another example of Canada’s work at every turn to limit access to its market for highly competitive U.S. products,” Castaneda said.

The text of the agreement, known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, still must be ratified. An implementation date is not known.

Working through the Consortium for Common Food Names, NMPF also monitored activities at the 2014 General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva September 27-30.

The World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, is a United Nations agency charged with developing a balanced international intellectual property system. CCFN is a non-profit organization seeking the adoption of model geographical indication guidelines worldwide.

At the WIPO meeting, CCFN voiced concerns about the expanded use of geographical indications to restrict trade through an international system known as the Lisbon Agreement.

At its heart is the ability of U.S. dairy producers to keep using cheese terms that have become part of global lexicon. The European Union, in particular, is systematically seeking to restrict the use of many of these terms in export markets.

Recently, CCFN was granted official observer status at the Lisbon Agreement Working Group. CCFN will continue efforts to protect the rights of food producers at the next Lisbon Agreement Working Group meeting, set for the end of this month.

Cooperatives Working Together helped its member cooperatives make 33 export sales in September, involving 5.7 million pounds of American-type cheese and 12.7 million pounds of whole milk powder. The total 18.4 million pounds of dairy products will be delivered to customers on six continents by March 2015.

The September total brings CWT-assisted dairy export sales to 167 million pounds for the year. The sales are equivalent of 2.1 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. That equals the annual milk production of nearly 100,000 cows.

USDA data shows there were 47,000 more cows in the national dairy herd in August than a year earlier. CWT’s Export Assistance program has helped member cooperatives market the milk of those cows and more.

CWT is a voluntary, farmer-funded program developed by NMPF to preserve family dairy farms. It helps cooperatives maintain and expand world markets for products made from milk produced by U.S. dairy farmers.

Two standout dairy producers – Carrie Mess of Wisconsin and Carla Wardin of Michigan – are among eight finalists competing in the latest Faces of Farming and Ranching competition organized by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance. The winners will be announced next month in Kansas City.

USFRA, a coalition of more than 80 farm groups and agricultural companies, including NMPF, launched the first Faces of Farming competition several years ago to help put real faces on agriculture. Alabama dairy farmer Will Gilmer was a Faces of Farming winner in the first round.

The public will have 10 days starting on October 24 to vote online for the second-round winners. The final decisions will be made by USFRA and be announced during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting in Kansas City November 12.

In addition to being successful dairy producers, both Mess and Wardin are prominent bloggers. Mess (above), who is known online as Dairy Carrie, is co-owner with her husband of Mesa Dairy in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin. Her blog, The Adventures of Dairy Carrie, had more than a million page views last year. Earlier this year she was named “Social Media Farmer of the Year.” Mess is an NMPF member though Swiss Valley Farms.

Wardin and her husband own a centennial farm in St. Johns, Michigan. Wardin (below) has written her Truth or Dairy blog for four years and is active in numerous farming organizations. She and her husband were named Michigan Milk Producers Association’s Outstanding Young Dairy Cooperators in 2012, and the following year, were elected to serve as NMPF’s Young Cooperator Chaircouple.

The Faces of Farming and Ranching winners share their experiences on a national stage through media interviews and public appearances.

Voting for the second-round winners will take place through the USFRA Facebook page and at www.fooddialogues.com.

 

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, how much is a video worth, particularly when it’s shared with thousands of others via social media? In terms of the price tag for a farm’s reputation, or even the entire dairy industry, the wrong kind of video can be quite costly indeed. That has been demonstrated, yet again, as animal rights activist group released last month another undercover video depicting improper animal care practices on a dairy farm.

The abuses shown on these videos are far outside the norm for the nation’s dairy farms, and we need to call them for what they are: the disgraceful and offensive acts of a handful of poorly-managed individuals. Unfortunately, each time videos pop up, they damage our industry, which is exactly what the animal rights groups are seeking.

The other relevant question to be asked at times like this, is what else can be done to proactively address these situations? We’re not going to stop activists from infiltrating livestock operations – the resulting videos are too important to the fund-raising business model of these groups. The videos, with their selective and dramatic display of alleged abuses, are worth a great deal to such groups.

However, what we can do is work very hard to prevent the scenario where poorly-trained or unsupervised farm workers lack the understanding of how best to work with cows. As with many other societal challenges, the best long-term, proactive approach to addressing any lingering problem starts with education and training.

The good news is that we have an education program already in wide use: the National Dairy FARM Program. The Farmers Assuring Responsible Management approach uses a series of recommended best practices to help maintain and improve animal care on dairy farms.

NMPF started the FARM Program four years ago to provide a consistent, national, verifiable means of showing consumers and the food value chain how farmers responsibly produce milk. We’re way past the era of “just trust me on this one” rhetoric; we must have a national program with performance benchmarks, measurable outcomes, consequences for violators, and room to learn from past experiences and improve on the overall care metrics within the program’s parameters.

Since the early days of the FARM Program’s development, we have achieved widespread adoption of the program, due mostly to the commendable commitment that many dairy marketing organizations have made to the program. This includes an endorsement by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, making the FARM Program the industry standard.

Now, we’re at an inflection point in the evolution of the FARM Program. The good news is that organizations representing 75% of the nation’s milk supply are supporters and participants in the program. But the parallel reality is that not all of those organizations have required that all of their farms be enrolled. In other words, in some organizations, both cooperatives and proprietary processors, there is not a requirement that each and every farm go through the second party evaluation process spelled out in the FARM guidelines. Nor are all of the farms then required to be available for the third party verification step that is so critical in providing objective, independent assessment of the program’s integrity.

To address this concern, the NMPF Officers are recommending that, in order to be listed as a participant in the FARM Program, a marketing organization must enroll all of its farmer suppliers. This means no opt out or selective expectations for some farms, but not others. In order to continue building the credibility and reach of the FARM program, we must ensure that all of the farms supplying milk to a cooperative or processor are enrolled in the FARM program protocols and practices.

We are also recommending strengthened provisions to address any allegations of farm animal abuse. These provisions would require immediate third party investigation, probation if the allegations are substantiated, and a corrective action plan that must be implemented to address needed improvements.

Together, these developments are not revolutionary, but rather an evolutionary next step. We made similar decisions a few years ago when the program was altered to phase out tail docking – because the practice cannot be supported by sound science. In order for the program to be credible, it has to reflect and grow with accepted best veterinary practices.

The same is true, then, when it comes to the FARM Program’s continued evolution. It must grow in breadth and participation to demonstrate our industry’s commitment on animal care. Standards are much less compelling if they are not uniformly applied. The NMPF Board of Directors will be examining this issue at our annual meeting in October. The result there will paint a clear picture about the future direction of not just the FARM Program, but also the commitment to our customers to continually improve our practices.

While we engage in these efforts, it is important for all of us to remember that no animal care program or set of requirements, regardless of their provisions or consequences, will ever eliminate the prospect of an animal abuse video showing up on social media. As I’ve noted, the acts seen on those videos are abhorrent aberrations from the quality animal care provided daily on the overwhelming majority of the nation’s dairy farms.

As farmers, we need to do our part to prevent these abuses from happening. And if they do happen, we need to deal swiftly and effectively with the perpetrators. When we do our part, we need our customers to stand with us.

Instead of reacting to activist campaigns that, at their heart, want to eliminate our entire industry, let’s work together – farmers, processors and dairy food marketers – to ensure consumers understand our collective commitment to quality animal care and a safe, wholesome milk supply.

NMPF Also to Hold Seminar Next Week at World Dairy Expo

ARLINGTON, VA – The National Milk Producers Federation has posted a slide presentation on YouTube to help dairy farmers understand the new federal dairy safety net, known as the Margin Protection Program (MPP), as part of its ongoing effort to educate farmers about the new program.

There are links to the narrated presentation on both the NMPF website, and the Future for Dairy website serving as NMPF’s information hub for the new MPP program, which was launched by the U.S. Department of Agriculture September 2nd.

The 21-minute, 34-slide presentation walks the viewer through the details of the program, including who is eligible, how to sign up, and what the fees and payments might look like under various scenarios. Also covered are the basic concept of the program, what it replaces, and how it compares to the previous dairy safety net. This narrated presentation is a video file to accompany a more basic, slides-only version already available online.

“Dairy farmers are now making their decisions on participation in the new program,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern, who narrates the slide presentation. “Along with other tools NMPF has developed, this presentation should help them make the best choices for their individual circumstances.”

Meanwhile, dairy producers attending next week’s World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, can find out what they need to know about the new dairy safety net at a special, 90-minute briefing set for Thursday morning, October 2nd.

Sponsored by NMPF, the briefing will feature Mulhern along with noted University of Missouri dairy economist Scott Brown. It will start at 8:30 a.m. in Mendota Room No. 4, at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.

Held each fall, World Dairy Expo attracts more than 70,000 dairy producers and industry experts from 90 counties. The five-day event has long been recognized as the premier annual meeting for the global dairy industry.

The briefing is titled “Covering Your Assets: Why Farmers Need to Enroll in the Margin Protection Program.” In addition to the briefing and the narrated slide presentation available through www.nmpf.org and www.futurefordairy.com, NMPF has produced a five-page written summary of the new program, and an online calculator to help farmers select their coverage levels.

The new dairy safety net was included in the 2014 farm bill. It allows producers to protect their margin – the difference between milk prices and feed costs – rather than supporting milk prices.

Producers have until December 5 to sign up for the program for the remainder of 2014, all of 2015, or both.

NMPF was instrumental in constructing the new safety net. The organization developed the program after extensive discussions with farmers in 2009 and 2010, and then worked with Congress to include the plan in the 2014 farm bill. More recently, NMPF worked closely with Agriculture Department on implementation issues.

 

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 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 day that many in the industry had been anticipating for five years finally arrived August 28, when the Agriculture Department formally launched the new federal dairy safety net included in the 2014 farm bill. Now, it’s up to producers to get to know the plan, make their coverage decisions and sign up before the November 28 deadline.

The program, called the Margin Protection Program, or MPP, allows producers to protect their margin – the difference between the price of milk and the cost of feed – rather than supporting milk prices. Farmers will insure margins on a sliding scale, and must decide annually both how much of their milk production to cover and the level of margin they wish to protect.

NMPF developed the key elements of the plan after the catastrophic losses producers suffered in 2009 and again in 2012.

NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern called the launch of the new program a major step forward for the industry. “The Margin Protection Program is more flexible, comprehensive and equitable than any safety net program dairy farmers have had in the past,” Mulhern said. “It is truly risk management for the 21st century, and we strongly encourage farmers to invest in using it going forward.”

To help farmers familiarize themselves with the new program, NMPF has put summaries and other materials on its website and the related www.futurefordairy.com website, which is serving as a hub for information on the plan. Included are a spreadsheet with past trends in the margin and an online calculator that will allow farmers to enter their own pricing and production data to help them select insurance coverage levels. In addition, NMPF held a series of webinars on the new program.

Every farm producing milk commercially is eligible for the program. Sign-ups started at local Farm Service Agency offices September 2 and will continue for 13 weeks until Friday, Nov. 28. Farmers can register for coverage for the last four months of calendar year 2014, as well as for the entire year of 2015.

A $100 annual registration fee qualifies a farmer to receive free, basic margin insurance coverage. A premium is required at higher levels of margin coverage. Producers can cover from 25 percent to 90 percent of their production history in five percent increments and can insure their margin from $4 per hundredweight to $8 per hundredweight in 50-cent increments.

Premiums equal a producer’s production history, times the percentage of the production history they cover, multiplied by the premium rate for the level of coverage selected.

Initially, there are two options for paying premiums. Producers can either pay 100 percent at the time they sign up or they can pay 25 percent by February 1, 2015, and the remainder by June 1. NMPF is working with USDA to set up additional payment plans, including an option to pay through monthly milk check deductions.

In one important decision, USDA agreed with NMPF that lower premium rates will apply to the first 4 million pounds of annual production enrolled for every dairy operation. For 2014 and 2015, the lower rates on the first four million pounds of production will be further reduced by 25 percent.

Release of the new dairy program’s details capped five years of work by NMPF, the nation’s dairy cooperatives and other farm groups. “We applaud the U.S. Department of Agriculture on its hard work putting the final touches on the plan over the last six months,” said Mulhern.

President Obama will not take any administrative action on immigration until after the November elections, the White House announced earlier this week, ending expectations that agricultural employers will benefit any time soon from changes to the nation’s labor laws.

Earlier this year, the President announced that he was directing the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department to give him recommendations on administrative actions he could take to provide relief to individuals who lacked legal status in the United States. That led to hopes that, absent passage of comprehensive legislation in Congress, at least some current policies may change for farm employers.

Over the summer, NMPF met with White House officials on two separate occasions to share concerns with current immigration laws, and their impact on the dairy industry. NMPF believes that the only long-term solution to the dairy industry’s immigration challenges is legislation that addresses both current and future workforce challenges. However, given the lack of congressional action to pass legislation that provides relief to dairy farmers, NMPF welcomed the opportunity to share the dairy industry’s concerns, and propose to the administration possible short-term relief for workers and various industries.

Even administrative action proved to be too controversial, however, with several Senate Democrats facing reelection voicing their concerns to the White House that any action may cost them votes in November. Hence the decision this past weekend by the White House to forego any steps that might create problems at the polls for those seeking reelection. If and when the President decides to act after the November elections, NMPF will continue to pursue relief of any kind, be it administrative or legislative.

Similarly, NMPF remains committed to passing legislation that will provide certainty and relief to dairy farmers when the 114th Congress gets underway in January 2015. NMPF worked tirelessly to pass the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate in 2013. Because similar legislation was not considered in the House of Representatives, new bills will have to be drafted and passed in both chambers in the next Congress, regardless of any action President Obama may take.

Cooperatives Working Together helped member cooperatives make export sales in August totaling 9.6 million pounds of dairy products. The 36 overseas sales to customers on all six continents included 7.4 million pounds of American-type cheese, 55,116 pounds of butter, and 2.205 million pounds of whole milk powder.

The August export sales bring the year-to-date total to 153 million pounds of dairy product export sales assisted by CWT, the equivalent of 2.012 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.

Through July 2014, CWT has accounted for 55% of American-type cheese exports and 43% of butter exports.

CWT is a voluntary, farmer-funded program that provides assistance to member cooperatives to maintain and expand world markets for U.S. dairy products made from milk produced by America’s dairy farmers.

Additional Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations took place last month, as the 12 countries participating in those trade discussions continue to work to bring talks to a conclusion. The impasse at this stage remains how Japan and the U.S. will handle agricultural market access. The outcome of those talks is critical for NMPF’s members, not only because of the importance of a high quality deal for dairy access into the Japanese market, but also because the result of those agricultural discussions are expected to set the tone for additional elements that remain unresolved, such as access to the Canadian market. NMPF remains deeply engaged in advocating for a strong TPP agreement and is consulting regularly with the U.S. negotiating team to help support that result.

Later this month, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks between the U.S. & the EU will also reconvene. The EU’s desire to use Geographical Indications (GIs) and other restrictions to limit U.S. cheese sales is expected to remain a hot topic of discussion in those negotiations. NMPF remains adamant in rejecting the EU’s efforts to use GIs as barriers to trade and competition. Other topics that NMPF is focused on will also be discussed during the September TTIP round, including various regulatory requirements that unjustly impede trade.

NMPF and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) have signed an agreement to work together on water quality projects that benefit both dairy farmers and wastewater treatment plants in the country’s largest cities.

“Many of those plants have already spent large amounts complying with requirements under the Clean Water Act,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern, at a public signing event on Sept. 9th. “While many cities were able to install more affordable technologies to reach initial targets, further reductions will require exponentially more funding.”

NACWA estimates that over the next 20 years, its members are facing a shortfall in funding for wastewater infrastructure upgrades approaching $500 billion. This prompted NACWA members to search for new ways to comply with Clean Water Act requirements and improve water quality from the non-point source sectors, including agriculture.

The 2014 Farm Bill included language to allow municipal entities to partner with agriculture to improve water quality. Some projects that could be funded through collaboration with USDA and municipalities include installing edge-of-field filter strips and anaerobic digestion with nutrient separation technology on farms.

“This unique opportunity provides a framework for NACWA and NMPF members to work together on projects promoting water quality, while strengthening the dairy producer community’s engagement on these issues,” said Mulhern. “While the agreement doesn’t commit NMPF to any funds or explicit obligations, it does provide a framework for NACWA and NMPF members to explore potential pilot projects and policy synergies related to water quality.”

USDA, EPA, and prominent national lawmakers all commented favorably on the signing of the NACWA/NMPF agreement, which took place at the National Press Club in Washington on Sept. 9th.

In the photo: NACWA Executive Director Ken Kirk (left) and NMPF President & CEO Jim Mulhern (right)