A new vision for U.S. dairy
Today's dairy policy is a disaster for farmers, farmworkers, rural communities, consumers, the environment, and animal welfare. There is a better way.
After many years of advocacy, we are thrilled to announce the introduction of the most significant dairy legislation in more than a decade! NFFC fully supports The Milk from Family Dairies Act (S.4906), introduced by Senator Peter Welch [D-VT], that would ensure dairy farmers a fair price for their product while protecting costs for consumers and revitalizing rural areas - all while saving taxpayers money.
The Milk from Family Dairies Act has broad support across the farm and food system. More than three dozen farming and dairy advocacy groups have joined NFFC in endorsing this landmark bill. And in 2021, more than 90 farm, food, social, labor, and environmental justice organizations signed on in support of systemic dairy reform centered around price floors and market stabilization programs, including National Farmers Union, Farm Aid, the Teamsters Dairy Conference, Migrant Justice, Health Care Without Harm, Center for Food Safety, and many more.
The Milk from Family Dairies Act includes these five central components:
- Price floors, based on scale of operation, that allow family-scale dairy farmers to cover their costs of production;
- Reducing volatility in the sector and better balancing the supply of dairy with domestic demand;
- Reducing the US dairy sector’s overreliance on export markets, a strategy which has largely failed small-scale producers;
- Gradually scaling down large-scale megadairies to help restore competition to the sector; and,
- Investment and incentives to rebuild regional dairy infrastructure.
WHY A NEW DAIRY POLICY?
One-third of all U.S. milk comes from large dairies with more than 2,000 cows, which contribute to lower farmer milk prices, depressed rural economies, and huge amounts of water-polluting manure and climate-warming methane.
Meanwhile, smaller family-scale dairies are being forced out of business every day by low milk prices. Small dairies can mitigate climate change, improve soil health, and preserve open space. In 2000, there were more than 105,000 dairy farms. In 2022, there were fewer than 25,000 dairy farms remaining in the entire US - a loss of more than 70%.
The dairy industry has always been complicated. Cows, land, buildings, and milking equipment make entering dairy farming a big investment with significant debt. Dairy farmers have little negotiating power with processors (the companies or cooperatives that bottle milk and make dairy products) because milk is so perishable.
Historically in the U.S. and Europe, and currently in Canada, dairy policy has been based on market stabilization programs using supply management. The system balances the supply and demand of milk (too much milk lowers farmer prices, while not enough raises consumer prices), which ensures consumers a reliable supply of milk and guarantees farmers a fair price for what they sell. Without dairy supply management, milk prices can be so volatile that farmers often don’t know if their next milk check will even cover their costs of production or if they will have to choose between paying their electric bill or buying groceries.
The Milk from Family Dairies Act will give dairy farmers the economic security to invest in their farms, their animals, their communities, and their workers.
NFFC FIGHTS FOR DAIRY FARMERS
NFFC has fought for dairy farmer justice since the organization’s founding in 1986. In 2021, NFFC developed an extensive dairy proposal based on the tenets of NFFC’s 2007 Food from Family Farms Act, elements of our members’ dairy policy proposals, and supply management systems in Canada and elsewhere. The proposal went through many iterations with feedback from members, allies, and partners, including dairy farmers. Many of the components of NFFC’s proposal are included in the Milk from Family Dairies Act, and we look forward to continuing to advocate for the implementation of all of our proposal goals in Congress.
Additional efforts have included:
- Partnering with Wisconsin Farmers Union and many others across the country in the Dairy Together coalition, calling for emergency measures to stop the dairy crisis immediately and bring long-term stability to the industry.
- Advocating to end the widespread use of milk produced with bovine growth hormone (rBGH/rBST), a genetically engineered chemical hormone that increases milk production by up to 15 percent. NFFC was part of a broad coalition targeting dairy processors and retail chains to stop using milk produced with the hormone. In response to this pressure, major supermarkets and other companies have pledged not to sell the milk, and use of rBGH has fallen.
- Protesting the increased use of imported Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC), a milk-derived food additive in many common foods.
- Sending two letters to Congress - one in 2018, and again in 2021, laying out clear steps for the federal government's response to the dairy crisis.Our letters increased public support for price floors and supply management and price floors as solutions to the dairy crisis.