Tag: Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act

NMPF Looks Ahead After Securing Farm, Tax Policy Wins

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF is building momentum on other major policy areas now that significant tax and agriculture legislation has passed Congress, with a focus on whole milk and farm workforce needs.

The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act has a chance for Senate floor action, having already passed through the Senate Agriculture Committee. The bill would provide schools with the option of serving whole and 2% milk in addition to the 1%, fat-free, and flavored options currently offered. Whole and 2% milk are the most consumed varieties at home and offer the same 13 essential nutrients, including protein, calcium and vitamin D, as lower-fat varieties.

Sens. Roger Marshall, R-KS, and Peter Welch, D-VT, the bill’s lead Senate sponsors, are working to pass the measure in the Senate by unanimous consent, a maneuver that saves time and heads off potentially problematic amendments. House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson, R-PA, and Representative Kim Schrier, D-WA, are leading the bill in the House and are working to coordinate quick passage once it moves from the Senate to the House.

NMPF also continues to urge Congress to pass legislation that meets dairy’s unique agricultural workforce needs, an increasingly pressing challenge given stepped-up deportation activity.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. GT Thompson, R-PA, is developing legislation based on last year’s House Agriculture Labor Working Group report, which recommended improving dairy’s access to the H-2A ag visa program. NMPF is also seeking stabilization for current dairy farm workers and their families, potentially in line with President Trump’s recent comments recognizing the importance of farm workers to the work producers do to feed the country and care for their animals.

NMPF has also stepped up its public and member communication on agricultural labor. NMPF hosted a members-only webinar offering guidance to farmers on immigration law on July 22. Meanwhile, Chief Veterinary Officer Meggan Hain had an opinion article on the importance of a stable foreign-born work force to animal welfare that was published in the USA Today Network wire service on July 24.

Finally, Congress is likely to turn its attention to passing a slimmed-down “Farm Bill 2.0” – items not included in the provisions of the tax legislation that included agriculture, including many programs traditionally handled in farm bills. The legislation will provide an opportunity to advance NMPF policy priorities that were unable to be included in the recent budget package, such as the bipartisan, bicameral SAFETY Act to direct USDA to partner with the U.S. Trade Representative to prioritize the protection of common food names like “parmesan” and “bologna” in international trade negotiations.

A slimmed-down bill will build on the dairy policy wins in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed July 4, which included:

  • Renewing the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program through 2031; updating DMC’s production history calculation to be based on the highest production year of 2021, 2022, or 2023; and extending the ability for producers to receive a 25% premium discount for locking in their coverage for the duration of the bill;
  • Providing mandatory funding for USDA to conduct mandatory dairy processing cost surveys every two years to provide better data to inform future make allowance conversations;
  • Boosting the farm bill conservation baseline, resulting in increased long-term funding for popular, oversubscribed programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program;
  • Providing new trade promotion funding based on current programs that return well over $20 in export revenue for every dollar invested in the programs; and
  • Increasing funding for animal health programs that help to prevent, control, and eradicate animal diseases, such as the outbreak of H5N1 in dairy cattle.

The legislation also included several tax policy priorities for dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own.

  • The bill made permanent the Section 199A deduction, enabling dairy farmer-owned cooperatives to continue either passing the deduction back to their farmer owners or reinvesting it in their cooperatives.
  • It also extended the Clean Fuel Production Tax Credit through 2029 to support the production of low-carbon transportation fuels. The bill strengthens the credit by allowing the Treasury Department to establish specific emissions rates for fuels derived from dairy manure, with the goal of unlocking new revenue streams for dairy farmers who invest in methane digesters that reduce emissions.

Whole Milk Legislation has 60% Chance This Year, Sen. Welch Says

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act has a 60% chance of becoming law this year, with congressional momentum building along with consensus that whole milk in schools is the best option for schoolkids, Sen. Peter Welch, D-VT, said in a Dairy Defined podcast released today.

“This is one of those things where, if we get it on the floor, and get the cooperation of leadership, we get the votes,” he said. “This is one of those areas of rare bipartisanship that we have right now.”

Welch, the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s rural development subcommittee, is a Senate co-sponsor of Whole Milk for Healthy Kids, which passed the House of Representatives in 2023 and this year is advancing in both chambers. The legislation would restore the ability of schools to offer whole and 2% milk as options.

Welch also serves on the Judiciary, Finance and Rules committees, touching on agricultural issues including immigration and trade.

You can find and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music under the podcast name “Dairy Defined.”

Whole and Lactose-Free Milk Shine Bright

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Alan Bjerga, Executive Vice President, Communications & Industry Relations, NMPF

This is shaping up to be an exciting year for both whole and lactose-free milk, two growing segments of fluid milk consumption that are poised for further gains in grocery aisles as well as Washington, D.C. policy circles.

First, the facts: Even as fluid milk continues its decades-long challenge of eroded consumption as beverage markets diversify and consumer preference shifts to other forms of dairy, both whole milk and lactose-free varieties are bucking that trend. According to data from Circana Inc., which tracks retail sales, whole milk sales rose slightly (up 8 million gallons, or 0.6%) in 2023 over 2022. Because overall fluid sales declined, whole milk now makes up 45.4% of total fluid volume sold and is easily the most popular variety.

Lactose-free milk, meanwhile, reached a milestone. By climbing 6.7% to 239.2 million gallons last year, it surpassed the sales volume of almond beverages, by far the most popular plant-based milk alternative beverage. Almond’s annual decline of 9.8% is a big part of an overall consumer move away from plant-based alternatives, which have now seen two straight years of sales volume drops. Buyers are emphatically rejecting years of misleading claims that these beverages are a worthy substitute to dairy.

What’s next?

The National Milk Producers Federation is pushing for full congressional passage of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which overwhelmingly passed the House in December and stands good prospects of passage in the Senate — if the right legislative vehicle can be found in a jam-packed election year. Bringing whole and 2% milk back to school meal menus is a great way to improve the nutrition of the next generation of milk drinkers. We have a call to action on our website urging senators to take up the bill.

Lactose-free milk is becoming the industry’s spearhead in ensuring equitable access to milk across diverse populations in federal nutrition programs. It is simply asinine federal policy to do what some vegan activists are proposing — increase access in federal programs to plant-based beverages that are both nutritionally inferior and now falling out of favor with consumers — when a beverage exists that circumvents lactose intolerance and offers all of milk’s benefits because it is, after all, milk. You will be hearing more about this in upcoming months as we strive to make 2024 a year when people become more broadly aware of just how critical lactose-free milk can be for effective and fair nutritional choices.

In what’s been a challenging time for the industry, what can the success of whole and lactose-free milk tell us? It shows that, for all the proliferation of alternatives, consumers like milk that’s most like milk, in taste and composition. They also like milk that’s accessible for everyone who wants its benefits. Quality and diversity are promising building blocks for a prosperous future. That’s plentiful in dairy, and this year, what consumers are choosing also can inform better federal policy.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on Jan. 18, 2024.

House Overwhelmingly Backs Whole Milk in Schools

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act on Dec. 13 with a commanding 330-99 margin, demonstrating compelling bipartisan support for expanding dairy in school meal nutrition programs.

The measure, led by Representatives GT Thompson, R-PA, and Kim Schrier, D-WA, expands the milk options schools can choose to include 2% and whole milk, in addition to the skim and 1% varieties currently allowed, increasing the number of tools schools can use to deliver vital nutrition to students by allowing more nutritious milk options schools can opt to serve.

“Expanding the milk schools can choose to serve to include 2% and whole is a common-sense solution that will help ensure kids have access to the same healthful milk options they drink at home,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern upon House approval.

The House vote came after extensive Hill work and grassroots advocacy, including an NMPF call to action to its mailing list of dairy advocates that can be joined here. The legislation gained near-unanimous support among House Republicans and a majority of Democrats, generating significant momentum for Senate consideration this year.

NMPF has been committed to reinstating in schools the milk options removed in 2012, including 1% flavored milk and all varieties of 2% and whole. After years of working with members of Congress, meeting with USDA, and filing regulatory comments, 1% flavored milk was returned to school lunch menus on more permanent footing in 2022. NMPF has simultaneously built bipartisan support for 2% and whole milk options. NMPF also has been urging the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to incorporate the robust body of scientific evidence showing the health benefits of dairy in all compositions, which should help expand dairy options in nutrition programs limited by dietary guidelines recommendations.

NMPF Applauds House Increasing Kids’ Access to Critical Nutrition

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) emphatically commended the House of Representatives for taking a critical step toward improving child nutrition by approving the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act today with a commanding 330-99 bipartisan margin. The measure, led by Representatives GT Thompson, R-PA, and Kim Schrier, D-WA, expands the tools schools can use to deliver vital nutrition to students by increasing the variety of healthful milk options school can choose to serve.

“NMPF is delighted that the House approved the bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act,” said Jim Mulhern, President & CEO of National Milk Producers Federation. “Milk’s unique nutritional profile gives it an unparalleled role in providing kids the nutrients they need. Expanding the milk schools can choose to serve to include 2% and whole is a common-sense solution that will help ensure kids have access to the same healthful milk options they drink at home. House passage is a critical step, and we urge the Senate to consider this bill immediately so it may be enacted into law.”

School milk, a mainstay of lunch menus for generations, plays an especially important role in improving nutrition security as an effective, inexpensive way of providing the nutrition kids need. NMPF has been tireless in its advocacy for reinstating whole milk, which was removed from school lunch menus in 2012. Since then, advancing science on the benefits of milk at all fat levels, as well as evidence of increased food waste from current limited choices, makes its return a top nutrition priority for schoolchildren, the families who serve nutritious fuller-fat varieties at home, and the school meal professionals who strive to effectively nourish those whom they serve.

The House-approved Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act will now be sent to the Senate, which already has its own version of the bill. The Senate measure is being led by Senators Roger Marshall, R-KS, and Peter Welch, D-VT, and has Republican, Democratic, and Independent cosponsors.

 

Whole Milk Brings the Nutrition Children Want, and Need

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Much has changed about milk consumption since 2012, the year that whole and 2 percent milk varieties were no longer allowed in federal school meal programs. Since then, the body of research supporting the benefits of fuller-fat milk has grown more robust, with research showing that dairy foods at higher fat levels are linked to outcomes such as lower total body mass in kids and lower childhood obesity. Milk is, simply put, a nutrition powerhouse.

Concern over food waste has also grown, with food waste rising when kids are given meals they don’t want to eat. Meanwhile, the gulf between what kids drink at home versus what they’re served in schools – already gaping when the ban took effect — has only widened.

 

This is the percentage of U.S. fluid milk consumption, excluding flavored varieties, in 2012, and again in 2022. Even at the time the rules changed, keeping whole and 2 percent milk off school meal menus was out of step with what parents gave their own children, with roughly 68 percent of consumption coming from those varieties. That should have been an ominous sign for anyone who ever thought children would flock to milk that didn’t taste like what they had at home.

That disconnect is even worse today.

In 2022, whole and 2 percent milk accounted for roughly 80 percent of consumption – and still, students don’t have access to the same healthy choices they almost certainly have at home. This is a lost opportunity for high-quality, affordable nutrition that kids would gladly consume. And that’s why, when the House of Representatives takes up the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act this week, lawmakers should take heed of the choices voters make at the grocery store – decisions that align with the latest scientific research on the benefits of dairy at all fat levels as well as consumer preference.

Having whole and 2 percent milk in school meals will nourish children and reduce food waste. And most importantly, it encourages kids to consume the nutrients they need. Taking the most popular varieties of milk out of meals was a questionable decision in 2012 – it’s indefensible in 2023. NMPF has a call to action urging lawmakers to pass the bill – the bigger the margin, the more pressure on the Senate to make it law. Dairy farmers, as well as parents and educators everywhere, will be watching the House with great interest this week.

And when common sense wins, we know exactly what we’ll drink at the celebration.

NMPF Builds Support for Whole Milk in Schools

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF built support for the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act in both chambers of Congress in June, with lawmakers giving increased attention to the need to increase milk options in schools.

The measure would allow schools to serve 2% and whole milk in school breakfast and lunch programs, which aren’t currently allowed. Although versions of the bill have been introduced in previous congressional sessions, the legislation has more support and is advancing further in Congress this session.

The House bipartisan measure, H.R. 1146, was approved by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in early June, marking the first time the measure has made it through the committee approval process. NMPF worked with bill sponsors House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-PA, and Rep. Kim Schrier, D-WA, a pediatrician, to build bipartisan support for the bill within the House and the committee itself.

NMPF wrote and organized a letter of support for the bill signed by 58 dairy organizations, sending to the committee a strong message of support for the measure. With over 125 cosponsors, the bill providing this “practical solution” has bipartisan support from the committee and the House, with potential House action as soon as this month.

NMPF is also building support for the Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sens. Marshall, R-KS, and Peter Welch, D-VT and introduced in mid-June. That legislation also has solid bipartisan support but has not yet had a committee vote.