Heeding Mark Twain’s advice that foreign travel is fatal to narrow-minded thinking, six of NMPF’s board officers joined me on a week-long trip to Europe last month. Our goal was to better understand how the U.S. dairy sector can best broaden its focus on global markets, as many major European dairy companies have successfully done. What we found in conversations with key players in Denmark, France and Germany is that America’s dairy industry has a significant opportunity to grow our share of the world market, and the time for action is now.

Of course, the imperative of addressing this challenge is staring us in the face. U.S. milk production continues to outpace growth in domestic consumption, and if we don’t develop new markets overseas, we will suffer the consequences of lower farm milk prices and the resultant pressure to survive.

Meanwhile, while the U.S. dairy industry has kept its predominant focus on the large domestic dairy market, the collaborative force of the 28-nation European Union (EU) has worked to become the dominant player in global dairy trade. The EU has a diverse array of dairy farming styles, and collectively its farmers also produce more milk than can be marketed internally, creating the need for a strong export capability.  NMPF’s leaders sought to deepen our understanding of how that reality is addressed by EU dairy cooperatives and processors, and how it affects the key challenges and opportunities they are seeing in the export market.

Perhaps the most interesting reaction – one we heard repeated across meetings in several nations – is that Europe does not view the United States as a competitive threat (even though we’re the world’s third-largest exporter behind the EU and New Zealand).  The view is that the U.S. dairy industry’s focus on our domestic market will keep us from competing more aggressively in foreign markets. While that view is not without some justification, I believe it underestimates the growing understanding here that increasing U.S. presence in global dairy markets is our new manifest destiny.

Our task will be challenging, but we can and will meet it. The EU dairy industry is organized, experienced, committed and well-positioned to grow their exports. It was clear our European cooperative counterparts are more heavily invested in the export market than our U.S. industry. Most exported at least 10 percent of their total sales with a variety of products, and all of them are seeking to grow that volume through increased investment of assets in new products and international marketing activities like sales forces, offices and subsidiaries.

All three dairy cooperatives we met – Arla in Denmark, DMK in Germany and Sodiaal in France (as well as proprietary processor Lactalis) – indicated they are focused on expanding their export sales. Sodiaal is creating products for consumers in China, Southeast Asia and West Africa. Interestingly, both Arla and Sodiaal indicated they want to not only export additional products to emerging markets, but also build processing and distribution facilities in new markets and work with local farmers. Meanwhile, DMK is focusing its market expansion on the Middle East and East Africa.

The European drive to export has been made even more pressing by the twin challenges of the end of production quotas two years ago and the simultaneous loss of the Russian market due to economic sanctions that are still in place.  Previously, Germany had a large market share in Russia, but now is focused on increasing its sales to China – in direct competition with New Zealand. The income of the EU’s producers is supplemented by payments generated by its Common Agricultural Policy, and that has softened the blow of the recent two-year downturn in global prices.  The overall income on the vast majority of EU dairy farms is increased by roughly 30 percent through various government payments.

We also heard from these cooperatives, as well as the national dairy associations we met, that marketplace pressures familiar to farmers in the United States have long been creating apprehensions about how milk is produced in Europe. The consolidation of retailers in Europe, each battling for market share, has generated a new emphasis on issues including animal care, traceability, sustainability and opposition to genetically modified ingredients.

In particular, the pressure to market “GMO-free” dairy products in Europe has been largely driven by retailers who believe they are responding to consumer desires. However, the information we gathered during the trip suggested that consumers care very little about GMO absence claims imposed by retailers on processors, and therefore on producers. In fact, individuals we met with indicated that, like here, the issue is largely driven by activists groups. As in the United States, the GMO-free approach in the EU appears to be a marketer-driven strategy to gain space and market share over competitors.

We came away from this trip recognizing that these EU dairy companies are committed and well-positioned to grow their exports.  It’s ample evidence of why the United States needs to respond in kind, now. Our leadership had many discussions about how to collaborate toward the common goal of increasing our investment — and presence — in the world market.

NMPF’s Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program will play a critical role in these on-going discussions. We are currently engaged in a strategic planning effort to examine CWT’s future role, an effort that I expect will lead to a sharpened focus on how best to grow our dairy export markets. In addition to NMPF’s efforts, U.S. Dairy Export Council President and CEO Tom Vilsack is planning to expand the percentage of our milk production that is sold overseas.

Now is the time for action. Working together, we can become a more competitive force in the world market.  Our European friends don’t think we have it in us. Sounds like a great challenge to me.

ARLINGTON, VA – “The Soy Foods Association’s 20-year-old petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is as inappropriate today as it was when it was filed in 1997, and the Good Foods Institute (GFI) is mistaken for trying to revive those old arguments today. Nothing has happened in the intervening time period to allow the combination of soy powder, water, emulsifiers, stabilizers, sugar, sodium and added vitamins to magically become milk. Regardless of what food technologists might try, milk still only comes from mammals.

“The efforts of GFI and other groups to alter food standards that have been in place for decades – allowing manufacturers of imitation dairy foods to append a plant name like almond, soy, hemp or quinoa in front of legally defined dairy terms such as milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream – falsely suggests that the products are nutritionally equivalent. They are not. This is a transparent attempt to profit from milk’s good name by emulating the wording, but not the superior nutrition, of our products. It is misleading and deceptive to allow these nutritionally inferior imitators to use our hard-won reputation to their advantage.

“What’s more, this request is not only inconsistent with U.S. food standards, it’s also inconsistent with regulations used by most other nations, which don’t allow plant-based imitators to co-opt dairy-specific terms. Ironically, in GFI’s first request to FDA in March, the organization admitted that in China – supposedly the original source of ‘soy milk’ – the more common term used in Mandarin for soy beverages is ‘dòu jiāng,’ which translates to bean slurry. At least that is a more accurate and legally compliant product description.”

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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), 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 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more on NMPF’s activities, visit our website at www.nmpf.org.

ARLINGTON, VA – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) long absence of enforcement of its own food standards has allowed the marketing of hundreds of deceptively labeled dairy imitators – a situation requiring immediate action by the federal government, National Milk Producers Federation officials told the agency during a high-level meeting in Maryland today.

Food policy staff from the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), led by President and CEO Jim Mulhern, met with key FDA regulators to discuss the dairy organization’s concern over the agency’s persistent inaction toward the misleading labeling practices of plant-based food manufacturers. During the last two decades, plant-based “milk” imitators have flooded the market, using dairy terminology and imagery to advertise their products as suitable replacements for cow’s milk, despite the fact that they are nutritionally inferior. While FDA’s own standards of identity clearly stipulate that products labeled as “milk” must come from a lactating animal, the agency has consistently turned a blind eye to violations of these standards, thereby encouraging these imitation dairy manufacturers to inappropriately use that term, as well as other dairy product terms like “cheese,” “yogurt,” and “ice cream.”

“Today’s meeting with FDA allowed us to convey our concern that in the absence of enforcement of existing clear and consistent regulations, well-defined product labels lose their meaning,” said Mulhern. “In the case of imitation milks, these beverages are nothing but a factory-made slurry of ground-up nuts or seeds combined with water, sugar, emulsifiers and thickeners. By comparison, cow’s milk has attracted and nourished generations, and built a reputation as a natural food with a consistent package of nine essential nutrients. It is misleading and deceptive to allow these nutritionally inferior imitators to use our hard-won reputation to their advantage.”

NMPF surveyed imitation dairy beverages in the marketplace and concluded that none of the imitation products matched the nine essential nutrients found in cow’s milk. The strongest discrepancies were noticed in amounts of protein, sodium and potassium. While almond “milk” has become the most popular dairy alternative, it fails to deliver one of real milk’s core nutrients: protein; almond beverages contain just 1 gram per serving, compared to real milk’s 8 grams (other popular milk imitators, including rice- and coconut-based beverages, also offer little to no protein). The survey also highlighted the amount of sodium added to dairy imitators for flavor. About two-thirds of the products surveyed contained more sodium than cow’s milk (which is all naturally occurring), some close to double the amount. A similarly large majority failed to offer the same amount of potassium – one of three nutrients most lacking in Americans’ diets, according to government dietary research.

NMPF executives pointed out that the current federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans admonish consumers that “other products sold as ‘milks’ but made from plants are not included as part of the dairy group [of recommended foods] because their overall nutritional content is not similar to dairy milk.”

“Beyond the wide variation in the presence of many nutrients, not one of these imitators had the same amount of nine essential nutrients in real milk,” said Beth Briczinski, NMPF’s vice president for dairy food and nutrition. “Some may add food-grade calcium salts or a few vitamins, but none matches milk’s complete nutritional profile. This discrepancy is about more than words; it’s a matter of the public being served nutritionally inconsistent, inferior products that desperately want to ride the coattails of and associate themselves with a superior food.”

The meeting also allowed NMPF to highlight the fact that FDA is out of step with its international counterparts, including Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Each country actively polices improper labeling of imitation dairy products; Canada requires U.S.-based companies to change the wording on their labels to comply with the country’s own rules, for example, requiring that the product marketed as “almondmilk” in the United States be labeled as “almond beverage.” Meanwhile, the EU Court of Justice determined last month that products not sourced from an animal cannot bear the terms “milk,” “cheese” and so on.

“These countries prove that by actively enforcing standards of identity, dairy-free alternatives and real milk can co-exist without conflict,” said Mulhern. “We are not trying to eliminate the marketing of these foods. We want to end the consumer deception associated with these products and for FDA to enforce its regulations on product integrity. We will continue to push on this issue until FDA acts to ensure dairy standards are enforced.”

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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), 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 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more on NMPF’s activities, visit our website at www.nmpf.org.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress must revise the dairy safety net program established in the 2014 Farm Bill to provide farmers with effective risk management protection that will increase participation in the program, according to Ken Nobis, president of the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) and first vice-chair of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), who spoke at a 2018 Farm Bill hearing today.

Nobis (right) testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee that while he believes the dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP) remains the right program for the dairy industry, “the changes Congress made to the MPP when writing the last Farm Bill rendered it ineffective when dairy farmers needed it the most.”

Nobis is a dairy farmer from St. Johns, Mich., and leader of MMPA, a milk marketing cooperative serving over 1,700 dairy farmers in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. He testified on behalf of his cooperative and the National Milk Producers Federation. His full testimony can be found here.

In calendar year 2015, dairy farmers paid more than $70 million into the MPP and received payments totaling just $730,000. In 2016, those figures were $20 million and $13 million. Nobis said farmers found that the program was not helpful during two years that were particularly detrimental to the dairy industry. As a result, many of them have become disenchanted with the program, and participation has dwindled.

“I guarantee, if Congress alters the MPP so that it more accurately reflects the actual costs of production for businesses like mine, participation in the program will increase,” he told Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) (both left).

In making his case for improving the MPP, Nobis detailed a list of proposed changes NMPF and its members had developed to improve it. The MPP is designed to help farmers insure against either low milk prices or high feed costs, Nobis said, but the determination of the feed price used in the margin calculation is problematic. During the farm bill process, NMPF’s original proposed feed formula, though considered accurate, was cut by 10 percent to address other budget concerns. Based on the government profit made on the program, concerns about budget that led to the 10-percent cut were misplaced, explained Nobis.

Nobis said it is also important to expand dairy farmers’ access to additional risk management tools like the Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy Cattle (LGM) program and similar programs that could be offered by USDA.

“Making the [MPP] program more attractive for dairy farmers is vital to ensuring participation in the program, and the safety of America’s dairy industry,” Nobis said.

Nobis also expressed appreciation that the Agriculture Committee’s leadership worked with the Senate Appropriations Committee to include important changes to the MPP in the agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018.

Nobis’s testimony touched on several other policy challenges affecting U.S. dairy farmers, including immigration and labor shortages, and the vitality of U.S. dairy trade as NAFTA renegotiations begin. He commended Congress and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue for actions taken earlier this year to reintroduce 1% flavored milk back into schools. He also thanked Roberts, Stabenow and several other Congress members for backing legislation that would support farmers’ roles as stewards of environmental sustainability.

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About NMPF
The National Milk Producers Federation, based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance the wellbeing 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 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. Visit www.nmpf.org for more information.

About the Michigan Milk Producers Association
The Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) is a dairy farmer owned cooperative founded in 1916. MMPA serves approximately 2,000 dairy farmers in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin, handling approximately 5 billion pounds of milk annually. MMPA operates two SQF Level 3 certified dairy ingredient plants in Michigan and a cheese plant in Indiana.

ARLINGTON, VA – In a meeting today with Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Jim Mulhern expressed appreciation on behalf of the nation’s dairy farmers for the congressman’s work to advance NMPF’s proposal to expand the H-2A farm worker visa program to include year-round employees on dairy farms.

During consideration Wednesday of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s annual funding bill, Rep. Newhouse offered an amendment that would allow farm employers to use the H-2A visa program to hire foreign workers, regardless of whether those employees are engaged in temporary or seasonal work. NMPF and leaders of its Immigration Task Force worked with Rep. Newhouse and Appropriations Committee leaders to advance the proposal so that dairy farmers can more readily use the H-2A visa program to fill their need for year-round workers. The amendment was adopted by the House Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support.

“Expanding the scope of the H-2A farm worker visa program is part of the continuing effort of NMPF and its members to find solutions to the labor challenges facing America’s dairy industry,” Mulhern said. “Dairy farmers have cows that need to be milked twice a day, every single day, yet they largely have not been able to utilize the H-2A visa program because of how the U.S. Department of Labor interprets the existing program, which restricts the visas only to the temporary and seasonal labor needs of agricultural employers,” he said.

NMPF Immigration Task Force Chairman Mike McCloskey, a Fair Oaks, Ind., dairy farmer, said the H-2A changes are an important first step to address the labor challenges facing U.S. dairy farmers. “We have been working with the administration to correct this, and now, thanks to Rep. Newhouse and many other legislators on both sides of the aisle, we have additional support to prompt the Department of Labor to expand the scope of the H-2A program beyond just seasonal jobs. This will make the H-2A program much more attractive and valuable to America’s dairy farmers.”

While the Newhouse measure has drawn criticism from some farm union organizations, NMPF believes creating an additional legal pathway for workers to connect with farm employers deserves bipartisan support. “This measure simply broadens an existing program for farm workers to recognize the unique needs of dairying,” Mulhern said. “It is critical to the vitality of the U.S. dairy industry and the fate of thousands of farm workers that our government creates and supervises a system that provides secure, legal employment. We hope the merits of this approach will surmount any opposition,” he said.

Mulhern said he was pleased that other dairy groups that have not been involved in this effort have since expressed appreciation for the NMPF-backed proposal. He said NMPF’s Immigration Task Force, which represents NMPF member co-ops and state dairy associations across the country, have been working on these issues for years, and is pleased to see progress in this effort. In addition to working with Rep. Newhouse and leaders of the House Appropriations and Judiciary committees, NMPF’s immigration efforts have involved extensive outreach to Trump Administration officials in a comprehensive effort to address the workforce needs of farm employers.

Beyond the efforts to improve the H-2A program, Mulhern said he is optimistic that NMPF’s work with the House Judiciary Committee will soon result in an agricultural visa program bill.

“This amendment is a great complement to our long relationship and work with House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and other members of Congress to address the need for a legal, reliable supply of farm workers,” said Mulhern. “We still need broader legislation that addresses the limited labor supply available to America’s farm employers. It’s in the best interest of all parties to acknowledge the deficiencies of the current system, where many of our farm workers are not legally documented, and where many employers don’t have access to a viable guest worker program.”

He added that NMPF and its members “remain committed to a long-term solution to the crisis of farm labor shortages in rural America. We need to maintain our current workforce while creating a sensible, workable means of filling farm jobs in the future. We will continue to work with Congress and the administration toward that end.”

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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), 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 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more on NMPF’s activities, visit our website at www.nmpf.org.

ARLINGTON, VA – The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) today applauded the inclusion of improvements to both the dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP) and the cotton program in the Senate Appropriations Committee mark-up of its fiscal year 2018 agricultural appropriations bill.

“We very much appreciate the leadership of Sens. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to help address critical shortcomings in the dairy and cotton safety net programs through the agricultural appropriations bill,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “The enhancements to the dairy Margin Protection Program contained in the bill would strengthen the program and help pave the way for additional necessary improvements in the upcoming farm bill,” Mulhern said.

The appropriations bill makes two important changes to the MPP that were included in NMPF’s farm bill proposal: It would reduce premiums paid by dairy farmers for the first 5 million pounds of milk coverage in the program, as well as change the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s calculation of the actual margin from a two-month average margin to monthly.

“By making the dairy safety net program more affordable,” Mulhern said, “this legislation will ensure that more farmers have access to better protection against catastrophic losses, likes those we experienced in 2009 and 2012. While there is more work to do to make the MPP the effective safety net that it was envisioned to be, these improvements are a great start.”

Mulhern lauded the work by Cochran and Leahy – the chairman and ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, respectively – as well Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Pat Roberts (R-KS), the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee, for their critical work on this issue. He said NMPF was pleased to work with the four principals to achieve these important improvements for dairy and cotton. “This bi-partisan collaboration is a clear affirmation of how to get important work done,” Mulhern said.

While these provisions do not resolve all the problems with the MPP, Mulhern said enacting these changes will be a major help. “NMPF will continue to work with Congress and the Administration through the farm bill process to address other problems so that the MPP can truly provide real safety net support. While the MPP remains a work in progress, this development is a major step in the right direction.”

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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), 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 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more on NMPF’s activities, visit our website at www.nmpf.org.

The second National Dairy FARM Program Evaluator Conference will be held in Indianapolis, Ind., on July 18-20, 2017. More than 400 trained FARM Animal Care evaluators will have the chance to network and discuss relevant topics in animal care, environmental stewardship and proper antibiotic use.

During the three-day conference, FARM Animal Care Evaluators will spend a day with staff from event sponsor Elanco, take part in presentations on topics like “The Economics of Animal Well-Being” and the importance of employee training, and have the option of visiting a 3,000-cow dairy operation.

On July 18, Elanco will host a professional development training session to teach evaluators about the company’s global business operation and commitment to feeding the world. On July 20, meeting attendees will visit Fair Oaks Farms, tour the dairy facilities and engage in a discussion on employee training.

Registration is $199 with the optional Fair Oaks tour an additional $50. For more information and to register for the conference, please visit the conference website.

On June 19, NMPF submitted comments to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the regulation of animals that result from gene-editing techniques. Gene-editing has potential for the U.S. dairy in helping to address animal welfare, antibiotics and sustainability issues.

In its latest draft Guidance for Industry #187, “Regulation of Intentionally Altered Genomic DNA in Animals,” FDA proposes regulating animals that result from gene-editing techniques within a species in the same manner as animals resulting from transgenic techniques (adding genes from a different species) through the New Animal Drug Application (NADA) process.

NMPF commented that the NADA process is unnecessary for most gene-editing applications in livestock. Instead, NMPF suggested that FDA use the regulatory framework suggested by the recent 2017 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report, “Preparing for the Future Products of Biotechnology.” The report offers a clear pathway FDA can utilize to determine what approval should be required for gene-edited animals not intended to produce biopharmaceuticals or medical devices.

NMPF also proposed that FDA institute a notification process in which the developers of gene-edited animals inform the agency of the technical nature of the genetic edit so that it can categorize and take appropriate action. NMPF noted that FDA’s draft guidance may be appropriate for animals intended to produce biopharmaceuticals or medical devices.