In a major step towards finding a political pathway to address the controversy surrounding immigration reform, the House Republican leadership issued last week a set of immigration reform standards. The reform standards include a provision for which NMPF has advocated strongly: the granting of legal status to undocumented workers in agriculture.

The standards call for the creation of a legalization program that does not include a special path to citizenship for agriculture workers, as is provided in the Senate legislation adopted last year. However, the standards do not bar these individuals from adjusting their status to “Lawful Permanent Resident” (i.e. a Green Card holder) through family or employment, once they have gained legal status under this program. The standards also call for enforcement and border security with verifiable triggers to be reached before any legalization can begin.

While the standards outlined by the House Republican leadership specifically cite the importance of ensuring agriculture’s access to a temporary workforce, the document does not address specific measures that would ensure that farmers could maintain the current workforce.

“It is imperative that any legislation provide incentives to help farm workers stay at the farm rather than leave the farm to pursue employment opportunities that may be available to them with their newly granted legal status,” said Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of NMPF.

“NMPF views this announcement as an important step in the effort to improve and revamp our immigration system. Importantly, the standards released last week allow for the potential of achieving the primary goals of legalizing the undocumented in our current workforce and creating a future flow of agriculture workers,” Mulhern said.

In related news, NMPF, through the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC), is working with the Partnership for a New American Economy, a coalition that brings together more than 500 Republican, Democratic, and Independent mayors and business leaders who support immigration reform as a way of creating jobs for Americans today. Through this joint effort, NMPF and the AWC will expand their outreach efforts on Capitol Hill and in the public to advance needed reforms in immigration with regards to agriculture.

Dairy marketers that make, sell, or distribute foods composed of real American milk can tout their offerings in the new Buyer’s Guide on the new, consumer-oriented REAL® Seal website.

The guide, the latest REAL® Seal innovation, is designed to make it easy for consumers to find stores, restaurants and brands that feature products made from cows on U.S. dairy farms. There are categories for manufacturers, distributors, retailers, wholesalers, restaurants, and more. Listings include a company’s name, address, and telephone number, along with an email contact.

To be included, email REAL® Seal Administrator Carol O’Connell at info@realseal.com. She will validate those who meet the guidelines for using the REAL® Seal and add them to the Buyers Guide.

NMPF took over management of the REAL® Seal in 2012 and has been promoting the seal heavily on the internet and in social media. In February, these efforts will focus on Valentine’s Day and the winter Olympic Games. A new YouTube video reminds the public that foods made with real dairy products are a good complement to winter sports.

Through its membership in the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), NMPF strongly supports efforts designed to shine a spotlight on European attempts to monopolize use of many common food names. Two particularly egregious actions took place in the past couple weeks that drew fire from CCFN.

The most recent was a United Kingdom (UK) appeal court’s ruling declaring that only yogurt made in Greece could be labeled as “Greek Yogurt.” The ruling was issued in response to a court case brought against a U.S.-based company over its sale in that market of “Greek Yogurt.” The European Union (EU) maintains a list of protected terms known as geographical indications (GIs), but “Greek Yogurt” does not appear on that list of GIs, nor is it currently even under consideration by the EU authorities for registration as a GI. Despite that, the court still found that the U.S. company was not permitted to sell “Greek Yogurt” in the UK market. This is yet another example of the European crusade to limit the use of many common food names that can trace their roots back to a regional linkage. This also builds on a statement last fall by the Greek authorities that they intend to use the U.S.-EU FTA negotiations to impose similar restrictions on U.S. usage of the term “Greek Yogurt.”

The other major development was the EU’s decision two weeks ago to allow Denmark to move forward with an application for a GI that would grant it exclusive use of the name “Havarti” in the EU. The decision is noteworthy because the term not only is used widely around the world, but also because there is a Codex Alimentarius international product standard for Havarti. In the United States alone, Havarti cheese is produced by more than 40 companies in a dozen states.

The month of January is when many state legislatures convene their new sessions and, as has been the case in recent years, that means a rash of state-level bills to legalize the sales of raw milk. NMPF has offered scientific counsel to several states where such legislation is pending, including recently in the state of Maryland.

At a January hearing in Annapolis, Vice President for Dairy Foods & Nutrition Beth Briczinski reminded the health and government operations committee of the Maryland House that every major health organization in the country discourages consuming raw milk, including the Food and Drug Administration.

“We pasteurize milk for a reason,” Briczinski told the legislators. “Raw milk is a key vehicle in the transmission of human pathogens including E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria and Salmonella. The state should not create new opportunities for these bacteria to make people sick.”

Briczinski also discounted the supposed health benefits of raw milk often touted by advocates and the media. “No claim related to the purported health benefits of raw milk has been substantiated in any of the medical literature,” she said. “The only scientific consensus is that raw milk can cause serious illnesses and hospitalizations, and can result in life-long negative health complications and death.”

Currently, 30 states allow distribution of unpasteurized milk, which is also where nearly 75 percent of raw milk-associated outbreaks have occurred. Americans have become ill after consuming raw milk from numerous sources, including cow-share programs and raw milk producers who are licensed, permitted, or certified.

The federal government has begun a year-long process of updating its guidelines for what Americans should eat. NMPF urged the advisory panel working on the next edition of the government’s basic nutrition advice to continue recommending three servings of dairy products a day for most Americans.

“Dairy foods are uniquely nutrient-rich and virtually irreplaceable in the diet if we want to meet nutrient recommendations,” Beth Briczinski, Vice President for Dairy Foods & Nutrition, said. “We strongly urge the (Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee) to maintain the current recommendation of three daily servings of dairy, and to focus on the serious public health problem of under-consumption of milk and dairy products.”

Briczinski reminded the group that milk, cheese, and yogurt contribute more than half the calcium and vitamin D in the American diet, and are the number-one source of seven other essential nutrients in children’s diets: phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, vitamins A, B12, D, and riboflavin.

“Even if calcium levels can be maintained with alternative foods, the levels of other nutrients such as protein, potassium, and vitamin D are adversely affected,” she said.

Briczinski told the panel research published since 2010 has strengthened the case that dairy helps reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, “The good news is that if people who under-consume dairy would add even one serving a day, that would bring average daily intakes of Americans much closer to meeting Dietary Guideline recommendations,” she said.

Briczinski spoke at the second of two days of hearings on the 2015 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines are issued jointly by the departments of Agriculture, and Health and Human Services every five years.

In an effort to support future leaders of the dairy industry, NMPF is accepting applications for its 2014 scholarship program.

Each year, NMPF allocates monies toward scholarships for the purpose of supporting graduate students actively pursuing dairy-related fields of research that will directly benefit milk marketing cooperatives and the U.S. dairy industry at large. In past years, the average scholarship awarded has been $6,000.

Graduate students from a variety of academic disciplines serving the dairy industry have received scholarships from NMPF in recent years. General research areas which have provided useful information to our milk marketing cooperatives include, but are not limited to:

• Agriculture Communications
• Animal Health
• Animal and/or Human Nutrition
• Bovine Genetics
• Dairy Products Processing
• Dairy Science
• Economics
• Environmental Science
• Food Science
• Food Safety
• Herd Management
• Marketing and Price Analysis

Completed applications must be received by NMPF no later than April 4, 2014. Applications are available on the NMPF website. 

The NMPF Board of Directors will select the winning applicants in June 2014. The winners will be notified soon thereafter. For more information, please visit the NMPF website or contact Beth Briczinski at 703-243-6111 or bbriczinski@nmpf.org.

It has been five years now since the dark days of early 2009, when the combined assault of collapsing milk prices and elevated feed costs produced a hemorrhage of red ink from America’s dairy farms. Collectively, dairy farmers lost $20 billion in net equity between 2007 and 2009, with most of that money disappearing in huge chunks during 2009, when gallon after gallon of milk left the farm at a severe loss. Five years later, the pain and memory lingers, even as balance sheets are recovering.

The problem for farmers in 2009 was that the public policy response was inadequate to the scope of the challenge – because our policy itself was lacking. In the intervening half-decade, NMPF worked within and across the dairy industry to devise an improved policy, to better reflect the realities of how milk is produced in America today, and by whom. We knew the new program would have to deal with the fact that federal budgets are limited, and the days of billion-dollar support programs, a la the 1980s, are not going to be repeated in the future.

After a year of deliberation, what emerged was a new risk management proposal to enable farmers to insure the margin between milk prices and feed costs. Without the limitations of the MILC program, much more of the nation’s milk supply could be covered by this voluntary program.

But NMPF also knew that to provide the most cost-effective insurance coverage for farmers, we needed to ensure that the program wouldn’t generate too much milk and send us into a downward spiral of low market prices and high insurance program costs. Thus was born the market stabilization element, which was designed to operate in low margin situations.

The power of that mechanism proved to be a real threat to processors, who railed against the program and disingenuously argued that our effort to prevent farm-level prices from flat-lining for month after month was equivalent to shorting the market enough to spike retail prices under normal conditions.

This debate was ultimately decided by one man: House Speaker John Boehner, who, in an ironic turn, likened the market stabilization element to a Soviet-style program, even as he strong-armed the farm bill conferees against taking a vote that he was afraid he would lose.

That brings us to the beginning of February, where those of us working on behalf of dairy farmers had to regroup and, using the tools at our disposal, re-craft the margin insurance program so that it can still provide an effective safety net while not encouraging excessive milk production and high taxpayer costs.

The package that has just passed the House and Senate should do just that. Adjustments that have been made in our original margin insurance program will make it affordable and effective, and should ensure that the margin protection safety net is just that – a safety net, and not a production stimulus.

The revised bill also will direct that, if farm-level margins again fall to 2009 levels, USDA will purchase consumer-ready (as opposed to bulk commodity) dairy foods for speedy donation to food banks. The federal budget cost of this program is likely to be higher than the program NMPF initially advocated. If that is the case, policymakers who proclaim the mantle of fiscal responsibility yet opposed our efforts to control program costs have no one to blame but themselves.

With the signature of President Obama, we reach the end of a long, tortured path leading to a new five-year farm bill. I believe the resulting dairy program will provide an effective and reasonable safety net, one that we have been striving to create these last many years. Whatever its shortcomings, it is far better than the programs it replaces.

2014 certainly appears, at this early stage, to be shaping up as a good year for milk producers. But the roller-coaster of pricing always cycles back down, eventually, necessitating a safety net for the bad times that follow the good. Creating such a safety net was the goal of NMPF five years ago, and while we haven’t gotten exactly what we hoped, the end result most certainly is badly needed, and will be helpful in the years ahead.

From Jim Mulhern, President and Chief Executive Officer, NMPF:

“It has been a long and torturous road toward the creation of a better safety net for dairy farmers, but with today’s vote in the Senate to approve the farm bill, coupled with last week’s House vote, that five-year journey has reached its end.

“We didn’t wind up precisely where we wanted in terms of the dairy program, but the milk glass is more than half-full. The new farm bill replaces three outmoded programs intended to help farmers – but that often failed in that effort. In their place is a new, more modern, and more comprehensive margin protection program offering dairy producers a far better and more effective safety net. Because it is designed to protect against periods of both low milk prices as well as high feed costs, margin insurance is a better risk management tool to help farmers deal with the global volatility in commodity prices in the 21st century.

“On behalf of our dairy farmer members, I want to thank the farm bill conference committee principals – Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Thad Cochran, and Reps. Frank Lucas and Collin Peterson – as well as Sen. Patrick Leahy, for all of their enormous efforts, and those of their staffs, to fashion this new dairy policy.

“I also want to express my appreciation to all of the farmers, cooperatives, and farm organizations that have helped throughout this long process. The members of NMPF have worked tirelessly since 2009 to build a new and better dairy program. The farm bill’s margin protection program is a tribute to their dedication and commitment.”

 

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.

ANNAPOLIS, MD – At a hearing here today before the Maryland House’s Health and Government Operations Committee, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) urged the state’s delegates to oppose a bill that would legalize the sale of unpasteurized milk in Maryland through the use of cow-share programs.

NMPF’s Beth Briczinski, Vice President of Dairy Foods and Nutrition, testified that unpasteurized milk, also known as raw milk, carries significant public health risks. Its consumption “is discouraged by every major health organization in the United States, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, as well as federal health agencies like the Food and Drug Administration,” Briczinski said.

“We pasteurize milk for a reason,” Briczinski said. “The link between raw milk and foodborne illness has been well-documented, with evidence spanning nearly 100 years. Raw milk is a key vehicle in the transmission of human pathogens including E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Salmonella. The state should not create new opportunities for these bacteria to make people sick.”

While it may be one thing for adults to make the decision to consume raw milk, the product is particularly dangerous for children, who are unable to understand the risks presented to their health. Briczinski noted that “nearly two-thirds of all outbreaks associated with raw-milk or raw-milk products involve children.”

Briczinski also addressed the misinformation and supposed health benefits of raw milk that are often touted by advocates and the media.

“No claim related to the purported health benefits of raw milk has been substantiated in any of the medical literature,” she explained. “The only scientific consensus is that raw milk can cause serious illnesses and hospitalizations, and can result in life-long negative health complications and death.”

Currently, 30 states allow the legal distribution of unpasteurized milk, which is also where nearly 75% of the raw milk-associated outbreaks have occurred. Americans have become ill after consuming raw milk from numerous sources, including cow-share programs and raw milk producers who are licensed, permitted, or certified.

 

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.

From Jim Mulhern, President and Chief Executive Officer, NMPF:

“Over the past week, NMPF has worked with agriculture leaders in the House and Senate to develop a margin insurance program that will offer dairy farmers an effective safety net in the absence of the market stabilization component featured in our original program.

“That process is now complete. Despite its limitations, we believe the revised program will help address the volatility in farmers’ milk prices, as well as feed costs, and provide appropriate signals to help address supply and demand.

“The program that we have worked to develop establishes a reasonable and responsible national risk management tool that will give farmers the opportunity to insure against catastrophic economic conditions, when milk prices drop, feed prices soar, or the combination. By limiting how much future milk production growth can be insured, the measure creates a disincentive to produce excess milk. The mechanism used is not what we would have preferred, but it will be better than just a stand-alone margin insurance program that lacks any means to disincentivize more milk production during periods of over-supply.

“Importantly, the program doesn’t discriminate against farms of differing sizes, or preferentially treat those in differing regions.

“The revised bill also establishes a system for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) purchase consumer-packaged dairy products during low-margin periods, which will stimulate demand and help dairy farmers when they need it most, and only then.

“We thank the principals of the House-Senate agriculture conference committee for working hard in an attempt to address the needs of dairy producers in this measure. We look forward to the passage of the overall farm bill, and will work diligently with the USDA to ensure the resulting dairy program is as effective and farmer-friendly as possible.”

 

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.

From Jim Mulhern, President and Chief Executive Officer, NMPF:

During the past four years that NMPF has worked to revise federal dairy policy, we have evaluated a variety of proposals against two key criteria: 1) does it provide an effective safety net for all of the nation’s dairy farmers?; and 2) does it protect taxpayers from the possibility of excessive program costs through the use of suitable incentives for those enrolled in the program?

The resulting Dairy Security Act measure, contained in the farm bills approved by the House and Senate Agriculture Committees in 2012 and again in 2013, is a loss-prevention margin insurance program that meets those objectives.

We were initially heartened that the four bi-partisan leaders of the House-Senate farm bill conference committee included the DSA language in the package that they were planning to present to the full conference. Despite the long-standing opposition to this plan from House Speaker John Boehner, we were confident we had the votes in the conference committee to defeat any amendment to strike the market stabilization program.

Unfortunately, the Speaker’s threat that he would not allow a vote on a farm bill containing the market stabilization program has effectively served to kill our proposal within the committee.

We are now engaged in discussions with agriculture committee staff on an alternative approach to creating a dairy safety net that would contain inducements to help achieve a supply-demand balance and prevent catastrophic milk price collapses like we experienced in 2009.

At this point, it is conceivable that an alternative mechanism could be developed, relying upon adjustments to the program’s margin insurance payout structure and participant premium rates, among other options. Any such approach must still offer an effective risk management tool to farmers, while containing suitable incentives to program enrollees to achieve cost controls. As always, the devil is in the details, and we will not support any program that does not effectively address the needs of our members throughout the U.S.

 

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.

ARLINGTON, VA – The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) today urged a scientific advisory panel working on the next round of federal dietary advice to keep the recommendation of three daily servings of dairy products for most Americans, since dairy products are the number-one source of nine key nutrients.

“Dairy foods are uniquely nutrient-rich and virtually irreplaceable in the diet if we want to meet nutrient recommendations,” said NMPF Vice President for Dairy Foods & Nutrition Beth Briczinski (left). “We strongly urge the committee to maintain the current recommendation of three daily servings of dairy, and to focus on the serious public health problem of under-consumption of milk and dairy products.”

Briczinski reminded the group that milk, cheese, and yogurt contribute more than half the calcium and vitamin D in the American diet, and are the primary source of seven other essential nutrients in children’s diets: phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, vitamins A, B12, D, and riboflavin. In fact, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) found that when foods from the milk group were removed from model food patterns, intakes of calcium, vitamin D, and three other important nutrients fell below the goals.

“Even if calcium levels can be maintained with alternative foods, the levels of other nutrients such as protein, potassium, and vitamin D are adversely affected – there is simply no substitute for dairy,” she said. “Americans have major shortfalls in recommended milk consumption starting at four years of age. None of us should find that acceptable.”

Research published since 2010 has strengthened the case for dairy’s beneficial role in reducing the risk of several chronic diseases, according to Briczinski. “The good news is that if people who under-consume dairy would add even one serving a day, that would bring average daily intakes of Americans much closer to meeting Dietary Guideline recommendations. We hope this committee will encourage people who are under-consuming dairy to add that extra serving.”

Briczinski cited recent research indicating dairy is an inexpensive way of providing these nutrients, and that since the last round of federal nutrition advice, the case has been strengthened that dairy is beneficial in reducing the risk of several chronic diseases.

“Many population groups do not consume anywhere near the recommended amounts of dairy,” she said. “The good news is that if people who under-consume dairy would add even one serving a day, that would bring average daily intakes … much close to meeting Dietary Guideline recommendations.”

Briczinski was speaking at the second of two days of public hearings of the DGAC for the 2015 edition of the federal government’s basic consumer diet advice, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The dietary guidelines are issued jointly by the departments of agriculture and health and human services every five years. The hearings were held in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington.

 

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.