Author: Theresa Sweeney
FMMO’s Next Steps Begin
Its Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) hearing now concluded, USDA is now considering more than 12,000 pages of testimony as it formulates its plan for FMMO modernization. NMPF is still doing what it can to ensure that proposal best reflects the interest of dairy farmers and their cooperatives, two NMPF economists said in a Dairy Defined podcast.
The key to successful modernization is a comprehensive approach that addresses the complexity of federal orders in a way that respects the entire dairy industry while keeping in mind that orders most fundamentally must work for farmers, Dr. Peter Vitaliano, Vice President for Economic Policy and Market Research, and Stephen Cain, Senior Director for Economic Research and Analysis at NMPF. That’s always been the bedrock principle behind NMPF proposals on areas ranging from returning to the “higher-of” Class I mover to updating milk composition factors.
“What separates National Milk’s proposals from processor groups is more of our holistic approach,” Cain said. “You can’t look at the federal order system having not been updated in 20 years and not address all facets of the industry, right? You can’t say in good faith that Class I differentials need to be updated because costs have gone up without also conceding the fact that make allowances need to go up for the same reason. So we took that holistic approach. That is going to help move the industry forward together.”
Cain and Vitaliano also discuss USDA’s decision-making timeline, and why July could be the key moment for FMMO modernization. The full podcast is here. You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file below. Please attribute information to NMPF.
NICMA Elects New Officers, Concludes Successful 79th Annual Meeting
The National Ice Cream Mix Association (NICMA), a dairy industry trade organization managed by NMPF and led by its chief science officer, Dr. Jamie Jonker, held its 79th Annual Meeting Jan. 14-17 in Fort Lauderdale.
More than 60 attendees, speakers, and guests enjoyed three days of technical sessions covering topics from food safety, product trends and innovation, employee retention, socially responsible sourcing, regulatory issues, and industry economics. NICMA welcomed Boxes of St. Louis, Inc., and General Films as new Associate Members.
NMPF Accepting Applications for 2024 Scholarship Program
NMPF is now accepting applications for its National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program for the academic year 2024-2025.
NMPF awards scholarships annually to outstanding students enrolled in master’s or doctoral programs actively pursuing dairy-related fields of research of immediate interest to NMPF member cooperatives and the U.S. dairy industry at large.
Graduate students pursuing research that directly benefits milk marketing cooperatives and dairy producers are encouraged to apply. Applicants do not need to be members of NMPF to qualify. Scholarship recipients will be invited to present their research via webinar during the summer of 2024. Top applicants are eligible to be awarded the Hintz Memorial Scholarship, created in 2005 in honor of the late Cass-Clay Creamery Board Chairman Murray Hintz, who was instrumental in establishing NMPF’s scholarship program.
Recommended fields of study include but are not limited to Agriculture Communications and Journalism, Animal Health, Animal and/or Human Nutrition, Bovine Genetics, Dairy Products Processing, Dairy Science, Economics, Environmental Science, Food Science, Food Safety, Herd Management, and Marketing and Price Analysis.
Applications must be received no later than Friday, April 12, 2024. For an application or more information, please visit the NMPF website or email scholarship@nmpf.org.
Scholarships are funded through the National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Fund. If you would like to support the scholarship fund, please consider a donation here: https://donate.stripe.com/eVa7th6v18VcaT6144
NMPF Comments on FDA Veterinary Priorities and Antimicrobial Use Duration
NMPF submitted comments Jan. 19 to the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine on their Environmental Scan.
The scan’s purpose is to identify major trends, including emerging issues and ongoing challenges, in the veterinary center’s internal and external environments to support, inform, and improve short-term and long-term strategic planning. The center asked six wide ranging questions about priorities, legal authority, communications, and One Health, an effort to improve health outcomes among all species.
NMPF’s comments reviewed the nearly 40-year U.S. dairy industry commitment to One Health through residue avoidance and the FARM animal care program. Comments to specific questions included support for broader FDA authority through the FEED Act to regulate feed additives with non-nutritive benefits, including environmental benefit claims, production claims, and claims about effects on the animal well-being and pre-harvest food safety. The comments also supported FDA’s efforts to streamline development and approval of other novel technologies to address animal health, antimicrobial use, and environmental issues.
The veterinary medicine comments followed joint comments NMPF submitted Jan. 5 with the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), the Academy of Veterinary Consultants (AVC), and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) on the draft FDA Guidance for Industry (GFI) #273 Defining Durations of Use for Approved Medically Important Antimicrobial Drugs Fed to Food-Producing Animals. In reviewing GFI #273, the groups identified several substantive concerns.
The group also referenced the agency back to extensive evidence-based comments previously submitted to earlier requests by the agency for public comments on this topic — specifically, the joint comments from AABP, AVC, NMPF and NCBA in 2017 and 2021, to include a request for information document with more than 80 scientific references.
US-EU Trade Discussion Features NMPF’s Morris Representing Dairy
Shawna Morris, Executive Vice President for Trade Policy and Global Affairs, attended U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) events on Jan. 30-31 representing U.S. dairy in discussions via the Transatlantic Initiative on Sustainable Trade (TIST) work program.
The European Commission launched the initiative last May to boost bilateral engagement with the United States and accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral economy. Morris participated in a high-level plenary session, a smaller breakout session, and a Jan. 30 welcome reception. While there she focused on the need to ensure EU agricultural policymaking is not wielded as a barrier to trade, encouraging the European Union to focus on collaboration on shared objectives rather than prescriptive dictates that would deepen U.S.-EU agricultural trade tensions.
NMPF Advocates for Common Names Protections in USTR Comments
NMPF, in partnership with the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), submitted comments to the U.S. Trade Representative Jan. 24 that emphasized the U.S. government’s need. to secure commitments from trading partners to assure the future use of certain generic cheese terms. The comments, part of NMPF’s ongoing mission to protect the rights of U.S. cheesemakers to use common names like “parmesan” and “feta” worldwide, were submitted in response to the agency’s request for input on its annual Special 301 review of intellectual property trade issues.
NMPF and USDEC’s submission supported more comprehensive comments from the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), which NMPF’s trade policy team staffs. CCFN reiterated how producers on-the-ground are negatively affected when the European Union confiscates common names, and detailed the specific markets that the administration should prioritize work in to preserve export opportunities.
Ag Trade Caucus Launches as NMPF Pushes Export Opportunities
NMPF Trade Policy Director Tony Rice joined Farmers for Free Trade for Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 meetings with key lawmakers and staff to promote a more proactive U.S. trade agenda. The meetings coincided with the Jan. 31 launch of the new Congressional Ag Trade Caucus, inspired by the farmer group to elevate the importance of trade policy that levels the global playing field for America’s dairy and ag producers.
Rice spoke with congressional staff about the need for new market access for American dairy exports, relaying the industry’s concern that U.S. exporters are seeing growing disadvantages versus America’s competitors. The discussions also offered the opportunity for NMPF and Farmers for Free Trade to educate newer congressional staffers from agricultural districts about the value of exports to their districts and constituents.
FARM Animal Care Kicks Off Version 5 Training
In preparation for new standards that go into effect July 1, the National Dairy FARM Program hosted the 2024 FARM Animal Care Version 5 trainer course Denver, CO from Jan. 9-11.
Nineteen trainers reviewed Version 5 revisions, discussed evaluation best practices, and calibrated animal observation scoring on a nearby farm. The trainers will manage training sessions to FARM’s 400 Animal Care evaluators throughout 2024. The first of those sessions for evaluators are Feb. 13-15 in Minneapolis, MN. That meeting will have training content for both seasoned and first-time FARM Animal Care evaluators.
Visit the FARM Program website to learn more about the FARM Animal Care Program evaluator expectations. Check back throughout Q1, as FARM will continue to release more Version 5 specific materials including an evaluation prep guide and reference manual.
The FARM Program’s aim is to continue to proactively communicate updates and prepare cooperatives, processors, and farmers during the first half of 2024, before new FARM Animal Care Version 5 standards are implemented.
NMPF Submits Comments on Voluntary Added Sugars Reduction
NMPF emphasized the need for a realistic and balanced approach to reducing added sugars in comments submitted to FDA Jan. 22. The comments, which supported the agency’s overall goal to improve healthful eating in the US, but urged for added sugars reductions to be voluntary, were a follow-up to an FDA listening session in which NMPF participated.
NMPF cited dairy’s successful work in voluntarily reducing added sugars in flavored school milk in its comments. “The dairy industry’s proactive, voluntary reduction of added sugars in school milk demonstrates the power of industry-led initiatives in this area,” it said in the comment. “Industry leaders came together around reducing added sugars, investing the time, energy, and resources to reformulate products into healthier options that people still enjoy.”
NMPF also pointed out that modest amounts of added sugars can make nutritious food more palatable, thus encouraging consumption and improving health. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association have both noted that using small amounts of added sugars has effectively increased vital nutrient intakes in a way that improves overall diet quality without increasing calories to unhealthy levels.
FDA Moves Toward Improved Feed Ingredient Reviews
In an important step to modernize its review and approval of animal feed ingredients, the Food and Drug Administration said Feb. 2 it’s withdrawing long-standing policy that classifies animal feed ingredients as animal drugs if making claims on production, environment, or food safety-related benefits.
NMPF has long advocated for FDA to rescind this policy to help pave the way for faster review and approval of animal feed ingredients that can reduce enteric methane emissions. A streamlined approval process, specifically one that would allow feed additives to be reviewed as foods rather than as drugs, is important for dairy farmers seeking to maintain global competitiveness as trade rivals adopt such ingredients, which currently are not allowed in the United States because of lengthy regulatory hurdles.
FDA also made clear that it supports the legislative authority embodied in the NMPF-backed Innovative FEED Act (H.R. 6687, S. 1842), which directs the agency to review enteric-reducing and other products using its Food Additive Petition process. That shift would represent an improvement over the current approach of reviewing such additives as drugs.
NMPF is urging dairy allies to write members of the House of Representatives to become sponsors for the Innovative FEED Act, which is critical to speeding FDA approval of Elanco’s 3-NOP (Bovaer) and similar future products. This NMPF call-to-action contains a pre-drafted message seeking House member endorsement of the legislation.
NMPF Creates Task Force to Develop CWT Renewal Plan
NMPF established in January a team of cooperative leaders and farmers to develop ideas for the next era of Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) after the current membership funding commitment expires at the end of this year.
This task force, chaired by NMPF Treasurer Pete Kappelman of Land O’Lakes, will focus on identifying and advancing strategies that will enable CWT to maximize its positive affect on farmers’ milk checks while growing U.S. dairy exports. Task force members will re-examine CWT’s role in dairy exports and define what’s needed to expand U.S. dairy sales growth overseas without duplicating existing export efforts.
Others on the task force include:
- Catherine De Ronde, Agri-Mark
- Tom Beringer and Scott Tomes, Bongards
- Rob Vandenheuvel, CDI
- Monty Schilter, Darigold
- Michael Lichte and Chris Kraft, DFA
- Darin Hanson, Foremost Farms
- Mike John, Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association
- Chris Hoeger, Prairie Farms
- Ashley Ellixson and Robert Chesler, United Dairymen of Arizona
- Steve Patience, Tillamook
The task force will share preliminary recommendations with NMPF’s Board later this spring, assembling a series of actions for the program after 2024, with the expectation that individual cooperatives will vote to renew their support of CWT (or join the program if they are not currently contributing) by the end of this year.
