More than five years ago the dairy industry, working through Dairy Management Inc.’s Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, launched an unprecedented effort to measure and reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.

Late in March, the White House formally cited those efforts in announcing its own plan to reduce potent methane gas emissions from a variety of sources. Methane is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions on dairy farms.

The Obama administration’s Biogas and Energy Roadmap will work with dairy farmers to voluntarily adopt systems that both reduce environmental risks and increase revenues for participants. These include recycling manure into products like fertilizer and energy and recovering nitrogen and phosphorus from soil.

Among other things, the roadmap will give farmers access to resources to reduce environmental risks, increase research into technologies that extract nutrients from food waste and manure, and attract investment to help the dairy industry become more sustainable.

“This announcement validates the dairy industry’s path, which is focused on incentives to increase farm income, rather than punitive regulations that would add more costs,” said NMPF President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulhern. “Because of our efforts and dairy farmers’ long-standing environmental stewardship, the White House strategy for agriculture includes cost-effective, voluntary actions to reduce methane emissions.”

In 2009, the dairy industry established a voluntary goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2020.

What’s in a name? Plenty when it comes to parmesan, feta and muenster, and the European Union wants to ban their use by U.S. dairy interests.

In a thinly veiled protectionist gambit, the Europeans argue that American versions of these cheeses aren’t the real thing. They say, for example, parmesan can only come from Parma, Italy, and feta can only come from Greece.

So in mid-March, a majority of the Senate asked the U.S. government to fight back. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, the lawmakers said the E.U. cannot be allowed to use a pending free trade agreement to claim cheese names used in this country for decades are “geographic indicators” that only apply to products made in Europe.

The letter, spearheaded by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), urged the U.S. negotiators to reject any proposal in the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that would “restrict in any way the ability of U.S. producers to use common cheese names.”

NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council applauded the bipartisan letter, which comes at a crucial time in negotiations over the Trans-Atlantic trade agreement.

“Over the past five years, U.S. cheese exports have been growing by an average of 40 percent annually, leading to a record $1.4 billion in sales last year,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “The United States has become the largest single-country cheese exporter in the world. So it’s vital that unfounded barriers to trade not hinder our growth.”

A new film that helps connect consumers with both farmers and modern farming practices will be released this spring, thanks to support for the movie generated by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, of which NMPF is a member.

Academy Award®-winning filmmaker James Moll’s new feature length documentary, Farmland, will be released nationally May 1, and will be distributed in more than 60 major markets. The film will have its East Coast premiere at a private screening on April 17, during the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.

Farmland offers viewers an intimate and firsthand glimpse into the lives of six young farmers and ranchers across the U.S., chronicling their high-risk/high-reward jobs and their passion for a way of life that has been passed down from generation to generation, yet continues to evolve.

The website www.FarmlandFilm.com will list local theatres where Farmland will be screening.

Want to know what NMPF did for dairy farmers last year? Check out the latest edition of the Activities & Accomplishments Report, available on the NMPF website. Published annually, the A&A Report gives members a detailed look at the issues and actions NMPF faces each year.

The 2013 report covers the continued fight for an updated dairy safety net, which culminated early this year with enactment of new margin insurance program in the farm bill. In addition, the report covers NMPF’s work on immigration reform, trade policy, the REAL® Seal, Cooperatives Working Together, and more.

“The year 2013 was pivotal for NMPF,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “In addition to pursuing the best possible economic future for dairy farmers, NMPF fought daily battles on a variety of important fronts. You’ll learn about all this work in the 2013 Activities & Accomplishments Report. I encourage you to take a look at it.”

The Annual Conference of the American Butter Institute & the American Dairy Products Institute will be held April 27-April 29, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

“This meeting is a great opportunity for not only networking and interacting with industry leaders, but it also presents a great venue to meet with customers.  The dairy industry’s landscape has changed considerably, not just domestically but internationally, and the sessions presented at the meeting provide attendees insight into how to prepare for these changes,” said David Riemersma, President of Butterball Farms, who also serves as President of ABI.

The conference will feature panel discussions on the dairy industry’s current market conditions; a discussion of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA); a review from across the value chain of GMO use; and a discussion of new rules and regulations from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that were mandated by the Dodd-Frank reform legislation.

Also, Jerry Kozak, former NMPF President and former ABI Executive Director, will receive the 2014 ADPI Award of Merit on Monday, April 28th.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance will hold its 13th annual Stakeholders Summit May 8-9 at the Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The focus of the meeting will be on marketing to the millennial generation.

The summit will include advice from chefs, retailers, trade media, and marketing experts on reputation management and other topics. A simulation on crisis management will also be included. Panel discussions will cover hot-button issues including sustainability, antibiotics, farm size, and animal care. All sessions will be geared toward marketing to 80 million U.S. millennials.

Additional information on the Summit, including registration information, can be found on the Animal Agriculture Alliance website.

 

Much of the focus of international trade negotiations in the 21st century addresses the regulation of products created by our minds – what’s known as intellectual property, things like software programs, movies, and trademarked brands. What’s become painfully obvious in recent years is that modern notions about intellectual property are being twisted to stifle the sales of some of the oldest things created by human hands: wine, meats, and cheeses.

The latest evidence of this effort is the push by European governments to dress up trade protectionism in the more fashionable form of geographic indications (GIs). GIs are a type of intellectual property designation intended to protect the use of certain names of foods produced in a particular region. A prominent example is Parmigiano Reggiano, a type of parmesan cheese produced in northern Italy. No food producer should be able to co-opt that specific name, just as no potato grower outside of Idaho has a right to sell “Idaho potatoes.” But that’s a far different matter than what is happening now, where generic names like parmesan are at risk of being pulled from the labels of foods where they’ve been featured for many years.

In fact, food makers in America and elsewhere have helped to popularize common food names with generations of consumers around the world. Now, European officials are trying to claw back those names for the exclusive use of their own companies. This is all the more galling considering that immigrant families played a major role in developing this global consumer demand, by introducing to new markets the products their families learned to make back in Europe. Without this work by American cheesemakers, the value of these common terms would be far lower, since they would be much less familiar to global consumers.

Already, trade deals the EU has created with important export markets like South Korea and Canada have specific carve-outs for European-made cheese products that prevent the same American-made products from being sold in those countries. And as the U.S. government proceeds with a massive trade deal with the EU, the battle over geographic indicators is going to be front and center.

Fortunately, NMPF has been able to work with other groups concerned about this precedent, especially the Consortium for Common Food Names (an independent organization founded by the U.S. Dairy Export Council), to point a spotlight on the ramifications of the GI issue. Last month, 55 U.S. Senators co-signed a letter to the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, indicating their indignation with the EU’s negotiating tactic to protect common food names. The letter underscored strong U.S. political support for rejecting any attempt by the EU to confiscate common food names. We believe it’s critical not only to be vigilant about attacks against our own market, but also to restore market access for our cheeses, including parmesan, feta and others, into the EU and all other export markets.

Despite protests from food producers beyond its borders, the EU has been emboldened by the pursuit of this patently self-serving strategy. The EU has not just granted the Greeks the sole right to sell “feta”; now, it is advancing an application by the Danes to create a geographic indication that would grant that nation exclusive rights to “havarti.” This, despite the fact that havarti does not apply to any geography in Denmark, and that the cheese already has an internationally-recognized Codex standard precisely so it can be made elsewhere in the world. In light of this trend, it’s not so surprising that a British court also ruled recently that the U.S. could no longer export “Greek Yogurt” to the United Kingdom, despite the fact that this term is not even on the EU’s own GI registry.

Trade liberalization is all about allowing the providers of goods and services to reach millions of consumers through the freer flow of their products. It enhances the ability of people in both developed and developing nations to enjoy products they may have never encountered before. For those who want cheeses from Italy, those products already state that fact on the label, just as cheeses made in the U.S. have similar designations. Removing the ability of American companies to use a specific common cheese name, however, is a far greater intervention, and an inappropriate one.

What the U.S. food industry wants – and this is bigger than just cheeses – is simply the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. It shouldn’t be stilted by Europe’s latest non-tariff trade barrier, masked as a crusade for the intellectual property rights of certain European countries. Freer trade should facilitate more choices, not less, which is why this fight over GI’s is not just a legal exercise, but an important defense of consumers’ rights around the world.

ARLINGTON, VA – America’s dairy farmers, cooperatives, processors, manufacturers, and other industry leaders applaud today’s announcement by the White House of a Biogas and Energy Roadmap to reduce methane emissions from agriculture.

In its announcement, the White House formally cited the work of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy’s Sustainability Council, whose efforts in part include a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to proactively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including methane.

“This announcement validates the path the dairy industry is on – one focused on proactive incentives that can increase farm income, not punitive regulations that would add more costs,” said Jim Mulhern, president and chief executive officer of the National Milk Producers Federation, which develops and carries out policies that advance the well-being of dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own. “Because of our recent efforts and farmers’ long-standing environmental stewardship, the White House strategy for agriculture includes a commitment to cost-effective, voluntary actions to reduce methane emissions through partnerships and programs.”

A Biogas and Energy Roadmap will be developed in partnership with the dairy industry to accelerate the adoption of biogas systems and other cost-effective technologies. For example, the recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus, valuable soil nutrients, has the potential to make these systems revenue-enhancing for dairy farms of all sizes. The roadmap will help the industry seize these opportunities by:

• Breaking down inter-governmental agency barriers, providing dairy operations access to resources because it formally recognizes biogas systems as a proven and effective technology to mitigate environmental risks;
• Stimulating and accelerating research to advance technologies, such as for extracting nutrients from food waste and manure; and
• Attracting additional third-party investment, both financial and technical, to support the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment.Through the Innovation Center, the dairy industry ramped up its efforts to build business value while reducing environmental impact across the value chain more than five years ago. These efforts provide a way for dairy farm families to turn environmental risks into new revenue streams, and demonstrate farmers’ ongoing commitment to being even better neighbors.

“This is great news for America’s dairy farm families of all sizes across the country,” said Tom Gallagher, chief executive officer of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, which brings together leaders of dairy farmer organizations, cooperatives, processors, manufacturers, and brands to foster innovation. “For decades, dairy farmers have demonstrated a commitment to environmental stewardship, and adopting new practices and technologies along the path to continuous improvement. Our work continues.”

In 2009, the dairy industry established a voluntary goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2020, and projects are underway across the value chain to accomplish the goal.

Biogas systems have been singled out because of the significant potential they have to help address methane, which are the single largest source of dairy’s greenhouse gas emissions. These systems recycle cow manure and food waste into valuable co-products like fertilizer, renewable energy and cow bedding. New technologies can optimize this potential and deliver economic benefits to dairy farms and those they work with, as well as the communities in which they operate.

“The roadmap makes good sense – not just for dairy, but for rural communities that realize economic benefits, including job creation, through innovation,” Gallagher said.

To learn more about the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment, the reduction goal or the projects and tools currently available, visit www.USDairy.com/Sustainability.

 

Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy® is a forum for the dairy industry to work together pre-competitively to address barriers and opportunities to foster innovation and increase sales. The Innovation Center aligns the collective resources of the industry against common priorities to offer consumers nutritious dairy products and ingredients, and promote the health of people, communities, the planet and the industry. The Board of Directors for the Innovation Center includes dairy industry leaders representing key producer organizations, dairy cooperatives, processors, manufacturers and brands. The Innovation Center is staffed by Dairy Management Inc™. Visit www.USDairy.com for more information about the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.

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.

The nation’s dairy farmers and dairy companies today expressed their opposition to new legislation in Congress that would allow the interstate sales of raw milk, saying that any additional availability of the product will increase the number of sicknesses and deaths of people who consume it.

The International Dairy Foods Association and the National Milk Producers Federation said that “the risks inherent in raw dairy products are not worth any imagined benefits to either consumers or producers of unpasteurized milk products. Raw milk skips the pasteurization safety process, and this is playing Russian roulette with the health of too many Americans – including many of our children.”

The two associations urged lawmakers to reject the “Interstate Milk Freedom Act of 2014,” a bill introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), which would repeal a long-standing ban on the sales across state lines of unpasteurized milk. Federal law currently gives states the discretion to regulate raw milk within their borders, but the dairy organizations expressed concern that repealing the interstate ban would greatly increase the production and consumption of a known health hazard.

“If this measure passes, those most vulnerable to dangerous pathogens – children – are the ones who will suffer the most. The benefits of consuming raw milk are illusory, but the painful costs of illness and death are very real,” said Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of the National Milk Productions Federation.

“Consumption of raw milk is a demonstrated public health risk. The link between raw milk and foodborne illness has been well‐documented in the scientific literature, with evidence spanning nearly 100 years. Raw milk is a key vehicle in the transmission of human pathogens, including E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella,” he stated.

Several states in recent years have considered and approved legislation expanding the sales of raw milk, even as the product has been repeatedly linked to serious illnesses from coast to coast.

“Our dairy industry benefits from a very high degree of consumer confidence – confidence built in large part due to the excellent food safety record of milk and dairy products,” said Connie Tipton, President and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association. “While choice is an important value, it should not pre‐empt consumers’ well‐being. To further ease the regulations surrounding the national sale of raw milk is an unnecessary risk to consumer safety.”

The two dairy groups said that the Centers for Disease Control has reported that nearly 75 percent of raw milk‐associated outbreaks have occurred in states where sale of raw milk was legal. Only one to two percent of reported foodborne outbreaks are attributed to dairy products. However, of those, over 70 percent have been attributed to raw milk and inappropriately‐aged raw milk cheeses.

“Seldom has the science behind public health policy been so clearly one-sided. Pathogenic bacteria can be found on any dairy farm, regardless of its cleanliness or the good intentions of its owner. This legislation is a threat to public health and should not be approved,” the organizations said.

 

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies within a $125-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA’s nearly 200 dairy processing members run nearly 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85 percent of the milk, cultured products, cheese, ice cream and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found online at www.idfa.org.

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 more than 32,000 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies.

A bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate weighed in this week on the importance of rejecting European Union efforts to restrict the use of common food names, including a variety of popular, well-known cheeses, used by U.S. dairy producers and companies.

In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman and U.S. Agriculture Secretary (USDA) Tom Vilsack, over 50 U.S. senators urged the U.S. government to fight back against EU efforts to restrict how U.S. companies market cheese and other foods. Under the guise of protecting European geographical indications (GIs), EU has been using free trade agreements to prevent cheese makers in the United States and around the world from using common food names such as parmesan, feta, havarti, muenster and others.

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) applaud the Senate’s strong statement in support of the U.S. dairy industry, as it comes at a critical time in the development of a free trade agreement between the U.S. and the EU.

The letter, coauthored by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), expressed opposition to the EU’s gratuitous use of GIs as a protectionist measure, and condemned the resulting barriers to trade that are growing in key U.S. export markets. The senators asked that USTR and USDA work aggressively against the EU’s efforts to restrict commonly used cheese names because they would harm the ability of U.S. businesses to compete domestically or internationally.

“Over the past five years, U.S. cheese exports have been growing by an average of 40% annually, leading to a record high of $1.4 billion in U.S. cheese sales abroad last year,” said Tom Suber, president of USDEC. “Last year, the United States became the largest single country cheese exporter in the world. So it’s vital to ensure that unfounded barriers to trade do not hinder this continued growth path for our industry.”

“For consumers both here and abroad, the consequences of limiting familiar food names to just a few regional suppliers would be higher costs, fewer choices and greater confusion,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “No one country has any right to own common food names for their exclusive use. U.S. businesses should have the opportunity to offer their award-winning products, and let consumers decide what they want to buy.”

“This is why the work of the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), an independent organization USDEC founded two years ago, is so important,” elaborated Suber. “CCFN allows those with similar concerns about this issue in various countries to unite in order to promote a more common-sense and pro-trade approach to GI policies.”

Mulhern agreed, asserting, “It is American food companies that have helped popularize many cheeses with old world origins, leading to increased sales for all. The Senate’s message about the threat to U.S. dairy farmers and cheese makers posed by this outrageous proposed trade barrier reinforces the importance of our work.”

 

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) is a non-profit, independent membership organization that represents the global trade interests of U.S. dairy producers, proprietary processors and cooperatives, ingredient suppliers and export traders. Its mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and assist the U.S. industry to increase its global dairy ingredient sales and exports of U.S. dairy products. USDEC accomplishes this through programs in market development that build global demand for U.S. dairy products, resolve market access barriers and advance industry trade policy goals. USDEC is supported by staff across the United States and overseas in Mexico, South America, Asia, Middle East and Europe.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), based in Arlington, Va., develops and carries out policies that advance the well-being of U.S. dairy producers and the cooperatives they collectively own. The members of NMPF’s cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S, milk supply, making NMPF the voice of nearly 32,000 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies.

With the new farm bill having been signed into law (left), attention has shifted to how the Agriculture Department will implement the groundbreaking margin insurance program for dairy farmers.

The program—the most significant rewrite of federal dairy policy in a generation—refocuses the dairy safety net from propping up prices, to protecting margins. In that way, it will help address the volatility of both milk prices and feed costs, which have become a major problem in recent years.

By limiting how much production growth can be covered under margin insurance, the new program will also help address imbalances in supply and demand.

The farm bill requires the Agriculture Department to officially establish the Margin Protection Program by September 1. NMPF staff held preliminary meetings in February with USDA staff on implementation.

NMPF will be working closely with USDA’s Farm Service Agency staff to ensure implementation is as effective and farmer-friendly as possible. In the meantime, the MILC program remains in effect through the first part of 2014, although milk prices are expected to be high enough so that it won’t generate any payments.

A detailed explanation of all the farm bill dairy provisions is available online. In addition, NMPF is refashioning its Future for Dairy website into a hub for information on the margin insurance program and its implementation.

*Photo credit to Michigan Milk Producers Association.

A rash of news stories in February has focused on the potential impact of rising farm-level milk prices, stoking fears of record-high consumer prices for dairy foods.

NMPF has provided important context to the issue, reminding the media that farm prices are just now climbing back to where they were in 2007-2008, before the Great Recession devastated dairy markets.

Also, of course, dairy farmers don’t have any control over retail milk prices, which vary widely from store to store. And farmers still get only about 35 cents of every dollar the consumer spends on milk and dairy products.

Farm prices are rising because increased global demand for dairy products is being met in part with U.S. exports, which are now more than 15 percent of total U.S. production. As a result, the supply of milk in this country is not keeping up with demand.

Last year, milk production rose just four-tenths of one percent, as feed costs, weather, and past low prices combined to keep a lid on farmers’ ability to expand output. Even with the recent price rise, however, dairy food inflation has lagged behind both the general inflation rate and the rise in all food costs for a decade.