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National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), on September 9, 2009 wrote to members of congress:
"On behalf of America’s hard-working and struggling dairy farmers, the National Milk Producers Federation is writing to express our support for the $350 million included in the Senate FY 2010 Agriculture Appropriations by Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT) as an amendment to the Farm Service Agency budget with the intent of assisting dairy producers."
NMPF claims to have provided the service of analyzing the best means of spending the $350 million. NMPF comes down strongly in support of the government buying processed cheese stating:
“If these same additional funds were used to purchase processed cheese for food program distribution, then $350 million would fund the purchase of an additional 210 million pounds of processed cheese, assuming the current outlook for market prices plus a $0.20 per pound cost for processing, packaging and transportation. The natural cheese content of 210 million pounds of processed cheese represents about 60 percent of total monthly production of American-type cheese, so it is assumed that purchases and donations would be spread out over a year, over which time they would represent an additional four percent of production.”
Members of congress need to be aware, there may be little U.S. produced cheese in “processed cheese.”
Here is a letter from FDA to Kraft in 2002:
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2002/ucm145363.htm
Then in a 2004 report the USITC said:
“56 percent of all MPC purchased in 2002 was MPC 70-79 used in the production of processed cheese products (MPC 70-79 accounted for 91 percent of the MPC used in the production of processed cheese products.”
NMPF cannot claim ignorance regarding the use of MPCs in processed cheese. NMPF has been involved in virtually every major discussion of MPCs in Washington DC.
NMPF cannot honestly claim anything, “On behalf of America’s hard-working and struggling dairy farmers.”
This is not suprising at all. NMPF is in bed with most of the large co-ops and processors. They are pushing what is best for the processors not the dairy farmers. And if you question them on this they get very very very upset.
ReplyDeleteJared Smith
As I go through my day to day routine of feeding milking and taking care of my cows I have been thinking of little else besides the mess which we have allowed ourselves to fall into and the corruption in our industry which always manages to line someone elses pockets. The way I see it until the bickering between us stops and we speak with a unified voice we will continue to be trampled on like we are so much of last weeks feed(through the cow laying in the alley). Yes you heard me right the little guys and the big guys and the organic and the amish and mennonite and the english(thats what the amish call the rest of us) and the western and eastern and everyone in between have to stand shoulder to shoulder and work to a common goal for the good of everyone because pointing fingers and blaming the other dairyman for the plight of the industry will nowhere but to the ruin of all of us. My vision is for a national coalition of sorts to band us all together for the goood of all. I read an article the other day that said that 2100 some dairies produce 50% of the nations milk, so that means that roughly 57000 dairies produce the other 50%. We need to find some kind of system to make sure that every thing is kept relevant to the size of your operation and all make the same sacrifices for the end result that we can all turn a profit. I would like to start a real grassroots dairy organization where every farm got one vote to steer the dairy industry in a profitable direction. I guess what I am talking about is supply management based on the will of the farmers who produce the milk not the USDA or NASS or anything else connected to the government. By rights it would have to move faster to correct milk supply with demand than what we have now. My plan is to simply use milk price as an indicator of when it is time to scale back production. Make more milk when price is good make less when it is bad, simple, fair to all. But lets face facts no two dairymen ever see eye to eye we just hope we can outlast our neighbor until the price rebounds to let us get out of the red for a few more months. Carry on boys, as you were lets just all get back to the one thing we all can do together, losing money and equity at a record pace.
ReplyDeleteRobert Lieb