USDA's Support of Dairy Outdated, Irrelevant

February 10, 2000

The Senate Agriculture Committee was told Wednesday that the government's support for dairy producers is "completely irrelevant to modern-day economic realities and should be scrapped entirely." When milk producers, processors and the entire industry are forced to become more competitive internationally, it will be more productive and profitable for everyone, said John Frydenlund, director, Citizens Against Government Waste.

Frydenlund also said regional dairy compacts "are a slap in the face to the milk-drinking public." There is no justification for "another government-sanctioned layer of regulatory bureaucracy to regionally fix prices. Dairy compacts pit region against region, fracturing the country, and will prevent the industry form making the changes necessary to take advantage of an expanding global marketplace."

John Neal Scarlett, New Market, TN, testifying for the Southeast Dairy Farmers Association, said a southern dairy compact "would be a great help to the industry in keeping the fast-growing market in the southeast adequately supplied with reasonably priced fresh milk. Compacts also allow everyone involved in the milk marketing chain to have a say in how milk is priced at the farm."

Bill Brey, president, Wisconsin Farmers Union, told the committee that national dairy policy "has become very contentious with one region pitted against another." Brey said the federal milk marketing order system was necessary although "not perfect." The system "provides testing and standards and helps ensure the orderly marketing of dairy products throughout the United States. It ensures producers are paid for the product they deliver. It has provided consumers with a safe and healthful supply of dairy products wherever they live."