{"id":45626,"date":"2023-07-06T08:30:40","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T13:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfbf.com\/?p=45626"},"modified":"2023-07-05T14:09:01","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T19:09:01","slug":"time-to-move-on-milk-marketing-system-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wfbf.com\/food-and-farming\/time-to-move-on-milk-marketing-system-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to Move on Milk Marketing System Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

My earliest memories of farming were in my family\u2019s dairy barn. Those were some of my happiest memories\u2014rising before the sun to milk the cows, helping care for our animals and doing my part to provide a nutritious product for our community. Dairying also brought some of my earliest heartache in farming. It\u2019s a hard business on the best days, but the most frustrating part of the job came from the mysterious ups and downs of milk prices under the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) system. Dairy farmers deserve a fair and transparent paycheck for the work they do, 365 days a year, and it\u2019s long past time we set about modernizing this system.<\/p>\n

My frustration with the unfairness and uncertainty of the market as a young farmer was one of the issues that led me to get involved in Farm Bureau. After yet another day of my complaining at the breakfast table, my dad told me that if I really wanted to see change, I needed to get outside my fencerows. Back then the FMMO\u2019s needed improvements, and that was more than 40 years ago. Change has been slow in coming to say the least, but it might never have come if we hadn\u2019t finally brought everyone\u2014farmers, commodity groups and processors\u2014to the table to find common ground.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just what Secretary Vilsack asked the dairy business to do a couple years back. So, last year, Farm Bureau held a forum to discuss what changes are needed in the FMMO system. Nothing was off the table in those discussions, which covered everything from updating Class pricing formulas to reducing de-pooling incentives to milk check transparency and strengthening the farmer\u2019s voice in the referendums that are required to approve or reject changes to FMMO\u2019s. Overall, everyone was able to agree on the need to modernize the FMMO system in a way that reflects the current market and is fair to everyone involved.<\/p>\n

Now Farm Bureau, along with the National Milk Producers Federation, is calling on USDA to take the next step and hold a public hearing on FMMO reform. In NMPF\u2019s petition to USDA they called for reforms to the FMMO that, in principle, are right in line with Farm Bureau policy:<\/p>\n