Click here to view the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 document
Dairy Pricing Association Inc.
W15311 Franklin Road, Taylor, Wisconsin 54659
Click here to view the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 document
I would urge you link to the act and read page 1. Dairy plays such a large role in peoples diet that Congress thought they needed to be involved to help keep the industry profitable. Since 1983 we have lost almost 300 thousand dairy farms across the nation. If you are trying to get rid of dairy farms it worked well. We can’t stay on this path much longer. Supply management implemented by the dairy processing plant and not Washington D.C.is needed soon.
Not only is dairy so vital to quality nutrition its impact on the economy locally and nationally can’t be overlooked. In order to stop the staggering decline of dairy producers in the U.S., a way to assure an equitable price the producer receives is needed.
Our national dairy checkoff organization, DMI, has strayed far from the original mission of dairy product promotion, research, and nutrition education as stated in this document. Their main “promotion” activity now is giving money to corporate “partners” which essentially forces farmers to pay for proprietary product development they will never share a profit in. Aside from this, DMI has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund and is assuming the role of corralling farmers into oppressive regulations regarding animal care and environmental sustainability. These programs have been constructed in a way that they justify large operations at the expense of smaller ones. In essence, programs supported by national checkoff now force many farmers to fund their own demise. DMI has set the dairy industry up for a public relations disaster by promising net zero carbon by 2050. Much of their staff who was to be part of this effort has now turned over. Now, new science has emerged that shows the global warming potential calculations that DMI is using in their program hugely overstates methane emissions and makes “net zero warming” an attainable goal for the dairy industry. They refuse to change course based on the new science and stand behind their impossible goal of “net zero carbon”. If checkoff is not eliminated in its current form, it will eliminate dairy farming as we know it.
40 years ago myself and around 20 of my neighbors began having dollars deducted from our milk checks in an effort to promote and ultimately sell more of the milk we produced on our farms. Today there are 2 of these farms that are still in business the other 18 are part of that 300,000 that are no longer part of the dairy industry. The milk co-op I sold to at the time merged with another to “gain efficiency and get more return to the members”. All reports that I see indicate that the co-op is struggling to survive. If the goal of the the milk check off is to help make the dairy industry a strong and growing industry for producers and processors I don’t see much of anything that 40 years later indicates it was a success. I believe it is time to reevaluate and make a change. It is also time for a sensible, producer driven supply management program.
After 40 years, it is time to ask some questions like what has the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 done to stabilize production, benefit the dairy producers, and promote dairy products. It is time to re-evaluate to see who is being served in the Act. For starters, the dairy producer should have the option to opt out (a portion or all of the monthly mandatory $.10) and allow the money to be designated by the dairy producer’s chosen promotional program(s) such as Dairy pricing Association. (See tabs labelled Promotional Events and Helping Others on this same website) In addition, the dairy producer should have the opportunity for input and voting on initiatives that the mandatory check off want to implement. With today’s technology and fewer dairy producers all the time, this should be more realistic and obtainable than ever before. Maybe it is time for dairy producers to vote if this mandatory check off should continue or not.