Farmers and their workforce have proven time and again in the past year that they can rise to substantial challenges. It’s time for Congress to do the same.

Dairy farmers and the employees who keep their farms running 24/7, 365 days a year saw major progress on agricultural labor reform last month when the House of Representatives again passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, the only piece of ag labor legislation to pass that chamber in the past 35 years.

This major milestone was achieved through what’s also become a rarity in Washington: a truly bipartisan vote. Thirty Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in supporting the bill, which was led by Representatives Zoe Lofgren, D-CA, and Dan Newhouse, R-WA, and backed by a coalition spanning across agriculture that’s been willing to overcome differences to put us on a path toward a workable agricultural labor solution.

The legislation, most importantly, protects current workers and allows dairy farms to participate in the H-2A visa program that allows for a legal, temporary immigrant workforce, thereby securing the steady, adequately-sized pool of legal employees needed to support our industry. That would be, by any definition, a breakthrough. But House passage, significant as it is, is only one step in the journey, and there’s a big step ahead of us. It’s on to the Senate now, and we will need the same kind of bipartisan leadership in the Senate to move a bill that addresses issues of concern that will allow for another bipartisan bill there.

These efforts have been propelled by the obvious need for reform. All of us in agriculture know how essential our workforce is. This has been proven more than ever by the pandemic, which unfortunately delayed progress on reform even as it proved its necessity via the workers who have kept food supplies coming even as other parts of the retail chain experienced temporary disruptions. The agricultural workforce – made largely of immigrants – put food on the table; simply put, the production of food and fiber in this country just does not happen without a workforce that relies on immigrants.

It’s been a year now since we went into this pandemic, and food production has continued because of these ag workers. Most of the milk in this country comes from farms that employ immigrant labor. And we know that much of that workforce is undocumented. Those folks have worked very hard for very many years — and it’s time that we bring them out of the shadows and give them the legal recognition that they deserve. And that’s why fixing our broken ag labor system and making it work for the future is so critically important.

It’s so important, in fact, that to achieve it, we have to be wary of our own impulse to seek perfection in the legislation we support. Calls for a spirit of compromise in Washington are as cliched as jokes about the weather – but when an actual compromise presents itself, sometimes the temptation is to call for a rain check and hold out for a better deal. For dairy, this bill achieves crucial goals that makes flexibility on other issues possible. We need that assurance of steady, secure labor to continue to prosper. Without it, our labor model will continue to be broken, impeding progress and building anxiety in the countryside for the next generation.

And while anyone’s view of perfect legislation will never be possible, this plan, already good in many ways, can still be improved in the Senate, which would through its own bill create a vehicle that would be negotiated with the House version before final passage. We at NMPF are already working behind the scenes with leading Senate voices on this issue, with hopes of charting a path forward for a bill this year in the coming weeks. More to come on that soon.

In the meantime, it’s great to see so many extraordinary efforts – from tending cows in the middle of the night to negotiating a good deal for farmers in the corridors of Congress — rewarded, and that’s why this bipartisan victory is so, so important. We look forward to continuing working with our colleagues in agriculture and allies in the Senate to get agricultural labor reform across the finish line. For all they’ve done, dairy farmers and their workers deserve it. They’ve successfully served our nation in a difficult time. Our nation now should show them its support.

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) urged the Biden Administration to work to eliminate foreign tariffs on and nontariff impediments to U.S. exports, following the release today by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) of the 2021 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers.

The annual report looks at progress made and challenges remaining on U.S. trade, investment and services in countries around the globe. Compiled from information from USTR, interagency partners and public stakeholders, this year’s report covers 65 countries and regions, including Arab League nations, the European Union (EU), key Asian markets and important Western Hemisphere destinations for U.S. dairy products.

USDEC and NMPF submitted comments on the major trade obstacles facing the U.S. dairy industry last October, pointing out that tariffs and nontariff barriers in many countries remain significant roadblocks to American dairy exports. Several of those concerns were incorporated in USTR’s report including dairy trade issues in Mexico, Canada, China and the EU, among others. In addition, USTR highlighted in its release that the key agricultural trade barriers captured in the NTE included “restrictions on the ability of U.S. producers to use the common names of the products that they produce and export”.

“Exports are extremely important to the U.S. dairy industry, which shipped more than $6.5 billion of product to destinations worldwide in 2020,” said Krysta Harden, President and CEO of USDEC. “Obstacles to those exports negatively affect the economic well-being of America’s dairy farmers and jeopardize dairy processing jobs and workers throughout the supply chain who support our industry. These barriers must be removed.”

“We need USTR to continue pressing our trading partners to eliminate tariffs and nontariff barriers that restrict our dairy exports,” added Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of NMPF. “The best way to do that is by implementing new Free Trade Agreements and enforcing existing agreements.”

USDEC and NMPF in their comments focused on barriers in key dairy export markets such as Canada, China, the EU and Mexico. Among the bigger obstacles cited by the organizations were the misuse of geographical indications (GIs) and unscientific import requirements and mandates.

On GIs, for example, the EU has sought to effectively monopolize common cheese terms by attempting to prohibit American cheese makers from using names such as asiago, feta, gorgonzola, gruyere and parmesan and keep out imports of U.S.-made cheeses with those names, not only in EU nations, but in other countries as well.

The EU also is a leading offender in employing prescriptive requirements to limit imports, including dairy products, imposing, for example, specific animal disease oversight and documentation procedures and limiting the use of veterinary drugs and commonly used antimicrobials. These are the kinds of barriers USDEC and NMPF urge USTR to remove to ensure exports of U.S. dairy products are available to consumers around the world and to protect the millions of American jobs supported by the U.S. dairy industry.

Congress created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in the CARES Act, its second coronavirus emergency relief package response enacted in March 2020. The program was designed to help small businesses keep their workers employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. PPP loans revolve around payroll costs, including employer-provided benefits. Business owners can also use a smaller percentage of each loan to pay for mortgage interest, rent, utilities, worker protection costs related to COVID-19, and certain supplier costs and operational expenses. PPP loans are forgivable.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) administers the program, which agricultural businesses initially struggled to access. NMPF has worked with members of Congress to ensure dairy farmers and cooperatives have equitable access to PPP, and together have improved access for agriculture in multiple areas. Producers who were denied a PPP loan in 2020 may now qualify if the new rules address the issue that caused the initial denial of their loan. In addition, borrowers who received their loans before SBA issued later rules and guidance may have received a smaller loan then they would under the new rules. For that reason, borrowers who have not yet had their loan forgiven can now ask their lender to evaluate their initial loan application against the new rules so that additional loan funds may be provided to make up any difference.

Congress also has created a separate type of PPP loan with steeper qualification requirements for businesses that have received and spent their first PPP loan. Called “PPP second draw loans,” these separate, second loans can only be taken by businesses that experienced a 25% reduction in revenue in 2020 and already spent the entire amount of its first PPP Loan.

Interested borrowers can apply for either type of PPP loan or have their first loan reevaluated by their lender until May 31. See below and visit the Treasury Department’s PPP webpage for more information.

From NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern:

“The National Milk Producers Federation appreciates Secretary Vilsack’s support for measures that take critical steps to improve the livelihoods of historically underserved farmers, including debt relief and access to credit. These actions, part of the recently enacted coronavirus stimulus package, strengthen U.S. agriculture and ensure greater equity in the opportunities that agriculture provides, building better communities for years to come.

“As noted in this hearing, Secretary Vilsack has pledged to continue exploring ways to ensure a more fair, conscientious approach to the special challenges Black and other underserved farm constituencies have faced in U.S. agriculture. We support these efforts.”

From NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern:

“U.S. dairy farmers and their cooperatives thank USDA for its support for the Dairy Donation Program, a critical means for connecting nutritious dairy products with the consumers who need them, as well as its examination of additional payments for milk producers that will better reflect the losses they have experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. NMPF looks forward to working with the department on the swift and effective implementation of USDA Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiatives.”

National Milk Producers Federation Senior Vice President for Policy Strategy and International Trade Jaime Castaneda today urged federal officials to effectively allocate dairy products as a source of high-quality, cost-effective nutrition in any successor to the Farmers to Families Food Box Program at a USDA listening session.

“Dairy foods, including milk, cheese, yogurt and butter, and many other dairy products are staples of our diet.  No single food contains as much nutritional bang for the buck as milk,” said Castaneda during the session, hosted by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. “Additional USDA purchases of milk and milk products, to then be donated to food banks and other charitable feeding organizations, would deliver a wide range of healthy nutrients to people at a relatively low federal cost. The cost-benefit equation for providing milk’s nutrition to the nutrient-insecure is enormous.”

USDA is soliciting feedback on how it should overhaul or restructure the Food Box program, implemented last year as part of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. The comments will focus on the value of government purchases to the dairy sector and how the future product mix acquired and donated should minimize farm-level price distortions.

Castaneda said an ideal program would better balance its nutritional offerings to both serve families and minimize price disruptions in the agricultural community.

“That disparity caused tremendous market volatility and unusual pricing challenges throughout the country, including extreme price differentials between neighboring farms,” Castaneda said. “We are eager to work with USDA to improve upon the product balance, particularly between cheese and butter, and ensure the department’s efforts better meet the needs of all producers as well as the families that benefit from these dairy products.”

Comments on the potential USDA plan are open until the end of the month. They can be filed here.

The prosperity of America’s nearly 32,000 dairy farmers and the jobs of three million Americans tied to the U.S. dairy sector relies on expanded trade opportunities and robust trade-rights enforcement, executives from the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) wrote today in a letter welcoming the new U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Katherine Tai.

Tai, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week, is tasked with enforcing U.S. trade rules and negotiating terms and conditions for America’s exports to foreign markets.

USDEC and NMPF outlined priorities in the letter for continued growth of export opportunities and market access to increase the volume and value of exports. Additionally, the organizations called upon USTR to enforce USMCA; restore export growth to China; counter EU efforts to impede competition; tackle nontariff barriers that limit U.S. dairy exports; and successfully conclude negotiations with new trading partners, including the U.K., Kenya and Japan.

“Our industry faces mounting barriers to exports, which is why we want to ensure Ambassador Tai’s full awareness of our challenges globally,” said Krysta Harden, USDEC President and CEO. “Her prior experience at USTR combined with her Congressional pedigree provides a strong platform to ensure U.S. trade policy will benefit America’s agricultural community and ensure continued opportunity for future generations of U.S. dairy farmers and the millions of jobs our industry supports.”

“U.S. dairy exports are a success story, growing steadily over the last decade and now surpassing $6.5 billion annually,” said Jim Mulhern, NMPF President and CEO. “Our focus on the future starts with upholding current agreements while forging new ones. Opportunities for new market access are abundant. We congratulate Ms. Tai and are ready to work alongside her to realize America’s full dairy export potential.”

Though the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, some light seems to be appearing at what may be the end of a very long tunnel. Vaccinations are moving ahead; caseloads have fallen dramatically from winter; and even if a better “new normal” isn’t quite here yet, “more normal” seems achievable, perhaps in just a few months.

Dairy farms, as always, are doing their part to serve, and to lead. It’s part of the cooperative spirit that defines the sector, one that, for all the talk of consolidation, remains dominated by family farms. Today, 95 percent of U.S. dairy farms are family-owned and operated. Many of them of multigenerational; all are critical contributors to rural economies.

Dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own have contributed to those communities throughout the pandemic. In 2020, farmers and dairy companies partnered with local food banks to deliver 469 million pounds of dairy – including milk, cheese and yogurt – to families in need through Feeding America alone. This doesn’t count the thousands of acts that go unrecorded, but not unnoticed, by those affected. Dairy farmers and their co-ops also, by supplying a nutritious product 24/7, 365-days-a-year, have helped keep food supply chains operating while supporting an industry that, in total, supports roughly three million jobs, one million directly and two million indirectly.

As challenges have evolved, so has dairy’s ability to respond. Federal coronavirus legislation includes a dairy donation program that should make dairy-related food assistance even more readily available to those who need it. And dairy cooperatives are lead in new challenges, such as vaccinations. The National Milk Producers Federation has published a “Dairy Farmers Guide to the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout,” with links to every state’s efforts as well as advice on vaccine programs for farmers and farm workers that’s tailored to their needs. These efforts supplement other NMPF-led materials created to navigate the crisis, ensuring that the U.S. dairy sector remains an example of positive, proactive response in domestic and international agriculture.

Traveling through the tunnel sometimes means leading the way. Doing its part – and leading – on agriculture’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, from local acts to global impacts, has been dairy’s mission throughout the crisis. It’s consistent with its other areas of leadership – from sustainability to nutrition to support for science-based rigor. And that focus will continue, until the brighter days return.