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NMPF Hosts Dairy H5N1 Technical Committee Workshop

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF assembled a technical committee made up of key stakeholders including dairy producers, veterinarians, and state and federal partners on Sept. 4-5 in Arlington, VA, to discuss the biggest hurdles and opportunities for the industry since H5N1 was found in dairy cows.

The workshop was funded in part through a USDA grant to bring together stakeholders for H5N1 discussions and recommendations. As the H5N1 outbreak in dairy cattle continues to evolve, new challenges have emerged and the actions to date need to be evaluated and refined based on new information. This requires a coordinated approach to address animal health, public health, food safety and environmental concerns. NMPF has been a strong leader throughout this outbreak crisis and is uniquely positioned to bring stakeholders together.

Participants– including state veterinarians, dairy producers, researchers, state public health officials, laboratory experts from the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, and representatives from the Food and Drug Administration, USDA National Preparedness and Incident Coordination, USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service– shared their unique perspectives and challenges.

The meeting included presentations on herd-level surveillance, diagnostics for surveillance, and the latest research on transmission. Dr. Mark Lyons, director of the USDA Ruminant Health Center, and Dr. Danelle Bickett-Weddle, owner of Preventalytics and the workshop facilitator, presented on current and future herd level surveillance. This presentation led to a group discussion and breakout sessions on surveillance goals and what it means to achieve disease elimination.

Participants also discussed research needs for disease transmission following a presentation from Dr. Lindsey Holstrom from USDA NPIC, and opportunities for testing following presentations on diagnostics from Dr. Suelee Robbe Austerman of USDA NVSL, Dr. Drew Magstadt of Iowa State University, Dr. Jason Lombard of Colorado State University, and Dr. Keith Paulson of the University of Wisconsin.

Finally, participants explored the communications needs for various audiences as the industry continues to navigate this disease.

The discussions from the September workshop, as well as earlier meetings and surveys of the technical working group, will be used to inform a series of reports outlining recommendations for the industry.

NMPF, Members Advocate for Dairy on Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Dairy farmers and their advocates are calling for dairy to maintain its premier position in the next iteration of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans via an NMPF call to action as the guidelines’ Advisory Committee concludes its public meetings this month.

NMPF’s advocacy campaign, launched in September, creates an opportunity for members to have their voices heard by the committee. USDA and HHS are currently requesting public comments as part of their update of the guidelines through Oct. 7.

A Sept. 26 meeting of the committee showed encouraging signs for dairy, as members acknowledged the need for more dairy in American diets and noted its health benefits. Still, nothing is final until the federal government signs off. Dairy advocates can participate in the NMPF campaign here.  These comments will be directed to the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee as it finalizes its report outlining the committee’s recommendations to USDA and HHS as the departments prepare to write the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The guidelines affect government policies in numerous ways, such as guiding which types of milk can be served in school meal programs and setting parameters for how nutrition programs are implemented and developed.

The guidelines are updated every half-decade.

NMPF, USDEC Call for Immediate Government Intervention to Resolve Port Labor Strike

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) called on the Biden Administration to immediately intervene in the port labor strike that began at 12:01 AM EST today at East and Gulf coast ports. The dairy organizations warned that this disruption could have a devastating impact on American dairy farmers and exporters who rely on the smooth functioning of these ports to get their products to international markets.

“The administration must act now to bring both sides back to the table. The stakes are too high,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “This strike puts the livelihoods of American dairy farmers and the strength of our supply chain at risk. The administration needs to step in and end the strike before further damage is done.”

The U.S. dairy industry relies heavily on ports to maintain access to global markets. In 2023, over 530,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of dairy products, valued at $1.7 billion, were shipped through East and Gulf ports, accounting for 21% of total U.S. dairy exports by volume. The ongoing strike directly jeopardizes $32 million in dairy exports per week, with additional indirect consequences looming as exporters are forced to reroute shipments and face rising transportation costs.

“Global customers depend on the reliability of U.S. dairy products,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “Delays caused by this strike not only risk damaging those relationships but also severely impact perishable dairy products that require timely delivery. The negotiating parties need to come together to find a resolution and ensure port operations resume as soon as possible.”

Dairy exporters experiencing challenges with rerouting or stuck shipments should reach out to Tony Rice (trice@nmpf.org) with questions.

Dairy Convenes with a Full Policy Agenda

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF’s member cooperatives are preparing for our organization’s premier annual event: the Joint Annual Meeting, held in conjunction with the United Dairy Industry Association and the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board. This year’s event is in Phoenix from Oct. 21-23, near one of the country’s most dynamic milk-producing regions. It’s an incredible opportunity to celebrate accomplishments, renew goals and craft strategy for future challenges. As is always the case, NMPF’s farmer and co-op leadership can feel satisfaction with jobs well-done that will position dairy farmers and the entire industry for a positive future.

High on that agenda is Federal Milk Marketing Order Modernization, for which we submitted our final comments earlier this month. USDA’s proposed changes to the FMMO system reflect the principles we laid out in our testimony and earlier comments, principles we arrived at after years of painstaking, methodical work engaging the top minds in in the industry. While we would never pass up an opportunity to suggest improvements (and we didn’t), fundamentally we have no quarrel with USDA and its plan. Barring unexpected, objectionable revisions, we look forward to it being put forward for producer votes expected early next year.

An unheralded part of USDA’s plan is that not only does it propose an update of the current system, it lays out a road map for how to make changes more methodically and easily in the future. There’s a balance between making change too easy, which could destabilize a system, and making it so difficult that it’s intimidating and costly to even attempt. Considering that the last major changes to the FMMO system came in 2000, it’s clear that, to date, the latter scenario has prevailed. That shouldn’t be the case; along with this modernization, future necessary modernization should be simpler. Achieving that is another win for farmers that will create a fairer, more responsive FMMO.

We’ll also be talking a lot about exciting changes to the Cooperatives Working Together program, which for more than two decades has helped U.S. dairy producers and cooperatives further America’s growing share of growing global dairy exports. We emphatically believe this program, updated and fully funded, will blaze a new chapter for U.S. global leadership in dairy exports.

FMMO and CWT alone would be enough to get everyone in Phoenix excited – but there’s much more. We’ll be discussing our industry’s prudent response to the still ongoing H5N1 virus outbreak in dairy cattle, which, after intense concern in the spring, is still with us. We continue to be both a resource and an advocate for dairy farmers on this critical issue. We also are marking this year’s implementation of new FARM program standards, serving up agricultural-sector-leading improvements.

On the policy front, we’ll be talking about our advocacy for the next farm bill and beyond, with important legislative vehicles such as the Innovative Feed Act offering potential pathways for greater dairy prosperity. We also can’t forget about the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last year — we won’t rest until it’s approved – or the Dairy PRIDE Act, which, slowly but surely, continues to grow in congressional support.

And no meeting would be complete with our cheese contest, which in recent years has added yogurt, and this year butter, as a category. If the nation’s finest cheese, butter and yogurt, can’t get you to register, then nothing will.

There are also challenges ahead. Regardless of which political alignment comes out on top this election season, tax changes enacted in 2017 come up for renewal in 2025. We need to come out firing on behalf of dairy farmers when that debate occurs. We continue to be concerned about anti-animal-agriculture efforts afoot related to the upcoming Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and we need to make sure we don’t concede an inch in ensuring that dairy’s unparalleled nutrition remains widely recommended and available for all Americans.

It’s a full agenda, but one that inspires to work hard every day to serve our members, who in turn serve consumers in the U.S. and around the world. We’ll have a lot more to say later this month, and even more to do after that. We always welcome the tasks.

Gregg Doud

President & CEO, NMPF

 

How the World Dairy Expo Shows NMPF’s Breadth

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

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.

NMPF’s Rice Updates Dairy Radio Now Listeners on New Export Challenges

Posted on by Chris Galen

NMPF’s Director of Trade Policy Tony Rice tells Dairy Radio Now listeners how NMPF is working to prevent a loss of milk powder exports to Colombia, which is taking unjustified steps to raise tariffs on U.S. products. Rice also provides an outlook of the potential impact on the dairy sector if a threatened labor strike materializes next week in Eastern and Southern ports.

Dairy Diversity Ready to Grow

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

It might sound crazy to think that a product that’s already in 94 percent of U.S. households has room to grow, but the numbers indicate it’s true. Here’s what we’re talking about:

This comes from a study done by the International Food Information Council, supported by NMPF and the International Dairy Foods Association, on consumption habits among diverse U.S. populations. What’s striking is that, even though self-reported lactose intolerance among non-White populations runs at roughly 30 percent (according to the same study), clear majorities among Black, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander populations haven’t even tried milk that addresses that intolerance, forgoing an option that provides 13 essential nutrients. And presumably, some of those non-milk drinkers are in that 6 percent who don’t have it in their refrigerators.

(And conversely, some of that 94 percent must include lactose-intolerant consumers. Are they taking lactase pills to aid in digestion? Are other household members the milk drinkers? There’s still much to know.)

The point is this: At a time when the committee drafting recommendations for the next Dietary Guidelines for Americans is looking at nutrition science and contemplating recommendations that are appropriate to the lived experiences of a wide range of Americans, it’s important to meet people where they are. For the overwhelming majority of them, that means a place where they have milk in the fridge. Those who aren’t there are in a place where awareness of the numerous ways to benefit from dairy nutrition, regardless of lactose tolerance, isn’t what it needs to be.

That suggests a need to double down on offering dairy’s benefits in a way that’s tailored to the needs of individual communities. It means listening to communities that value dairy and wish it could be offered more readily, in more accessible forms. It means serving that 94 percent of households with milk — and using the tools available to raise that percentage. It emphatically does not mean de-emphasizing dairy as a critical nutritional option for all Americans — or even worse, suggesting it be replaced by sources that aren’t nutritionally equivalent.

NMPF has a call to action that dairy advocates can use to help get this message across. Public health, and the best public health guidance, is important to all Americans. And dairy is ready to provide high-quality nutrition that’s affordable and accessible to all.

 

U.S. Dairy Calls for Swift Government Action as Colombia Moves to Impose Unjust Tariffs

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) today expressed their strong disappointment with a preliminary ruling by Colombia’s government that unfairly targets U.S. dairy exporters by advancing baseless claims that U.S. milk powder was unduly subsidized. The groups called on U.S. trade officials to take immediate action to challenge Colombia’s unjust decision and defend American dairy farmers and exporters.

Based on the announcement by Colombia, the preliminary findings call for an additional 4.86% tariff to be implemented on U.S. milk powder exports.

USDEC and NMPF have been working closely with allies in Colombia as well as their members to demonstrate that no U.S. milk powder going to Colombia is subsidized and that Colombia’s dairy sector challenges are due to a variety of other factors. Even the Colombian government acknowledged that there are “many elements that currently affect the Colombian dairy sector”.

“It’s extremely unfortunate that the Colombian government has chosen to use these politically motivated allegations to impose protectionist trade barriers, which will ultimately not only harm U.S. exporters, but Colombian companies and workers who rely on U.S. dairy products and ingredients,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “The U.S. government must act promptly and forcefully to send a message that these sorts of tactics will not be tolerated.”

“Today’s preliminary findings show yet again that the current Colombian government does not respect its trade commitments,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “Instead of working with the U.S. government and dairy industry to resolve this issue in a mutually beneficial way, Colombia has instead chosen to move forward with this meritless investigation. The U.S. government must use every tool at its disposal to counter the unwarranted tariffs on U.S. milk powder.”

Colombia proceeded with the preliminary imposition of new tariffs on U.S. milk powder exports without evidence of damage caused by those products on its producers or any indication that government support to U.S. dairy farmers resulted in lower U.S. milk powder prices. The action follows a similar case Colombia initiated against U.S. ethanol exports, along with unwarranted import bans on U.S. poultry and beef exports.

The next steps in the investigation include the collection of further evidence by the Colombian government and a public hearing to consider arguments in the case near the end of the evidentiary period. The preliminary tariff will be in effect for four months as the investigation moves forward. A final determination to impose tariffs could be maintained for up to five years prior to review.