| The crisis impacting dairy farmers has long been an issue and Congress took a step today in the right direction.
The Senate passed the Agriculture Appropriations bill which includes $350 million for dairy farms, including $290 million in direct payments to farmers that need it most.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Chuck Schumer have both advocated for this funding since New York's dairy farmers have been hit hard by the crisis.
"Our dairy farmers are hurting like never before from forces beyond their control and this assistance will help them weather the storm," said Schumer. "A large step was taken when we convinced Secretary Vilsack to increase prices paid to farmers, but putting $290 million directly in the pockets of dairy farmers will be a tremendous shot in the arm. We have now cleared all the hurdles in getting this money to our dairy farmers."
According to the press release issued by Gillibrand and Schumer, the $290 million will be issued based on guidelines set forth by the Secretary of Agriculture. The remaining $60 million will be used to purchase cheese and dairy for food banks and other nutrition programs.
"During these tough economic times, this increase will bring some much needed relief for our farmers," said Senator Gillibrand, the first New York Senator in 40 years to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee. "While this is great for New York's dairy farmers, this is only a temporary solution to the fundamental problems with the dairy pricing system. I will continue to work for a long term fix for our farmers."
As Gillibrand acknowledges, this is a temporary solution. More needs to be done.
From the release:
Senators Schumer and Gillibrand have been leading the charge for dairy farmers. Senator Schumer has been aggressively lobbying the Secretary of Agriculture to provide emergency direct payments to dairy farmers in New York and has called on the Department of Justice to investigate the discrepancy between the fall in prices dairy farmers are seeing and the much smaller drop in the price of milk in the store.
Senator Gillibrand has introduced legislation that would double the amount of money farmers get from the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program retroactive to the low point of the crisis in March. She also introduced legislation that would index the MILC rate of $16.94 to inflation. The price floor of $16.94 per hundredweight has not changed since the 1990's, yet the cost of production has increased exponentially. The MILC program payments were originally designed to help dairy farmers in their time of need, but have remained stagnant. In August, Senator Gillibrand hosted a hearing in Batavia, New York, to discuss long term fixes for the dairy pricing system, and has pledged to hold a similar hearing in Washington, D.C.
New York farmers are facing a dairy pricing crisis. According to the USDA, it costs a New York dairy farmer $18.82 to produce a hundredweight of milk. Yet in July, the average New York farmer received only $11.60 per hundredweight, though a number of farmers reported receiving even less. The MILC program was designed to be a safety net when there is a large price discrepancy, but has not been able to adequately protect New York's dairy farmers. As a result, New York farmers have been forced to either take on massive debt to cover their costs or go out of business.
Dairy farmers are facing a tough problem and some have had to go out of business because of it. I know of a dairy farm nearby that went out of business a few years ago. The figures listed above had a lot to do with it.
Today was a good first step. That will provide short-term relief and allow time for more long-term reforms to be reviewed and implemented. |
