Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 2018)
November 9, 2018 CapitalPress.com Subscribe to our weekly dairy or livestock email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters Dairy NMFP calls for increased dairy aid in wake of tariffs Idaho dairy farmer Tom Dorsey, center, is awarded the Richard E. Lyng Award for his contributions and distinguished service to dairy pro- motion. He is joined by Dairy West CEO Karianne Fallow and NDB Chairman Brad Scott. By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Dairy farmers are asking the Trump administration to recognize the significant eco- nomic losses dairy producers are suffering due to the im- position of tariffs on major trading partners and those partners’ retaliatory tariffs on imports of U.S. dairy prod- ucts. National Milk Producers Federation calculates those losses for the last half of 2018 at $1.5 billion, and its board of directors this week passed a resolution calling for feder- al aid commensurate to that damage. “In light of the administra- tion’s decision to establish a program to compensate farm- ers for the damage caused by these retaliatory tariffs, we call on the president to direct the U.S. Department of Agri- culture to provide assistance to dairy producers at a level that reflects the damage they have caused,” the resolution states. The initial USDA mitiga- tion package announced in August allocated just $127 million in payments to dairy farmers, representing 12 cents per hundredweight of milk on 50 percent of produc- ers’ production. The agency has indicated a second round of assistance might be made this year. “USDA is still preparing the second tranche of assis- tance, looking at their for- mulas and circumstances of different commodities,” Alan Bjerga, NMPF senior vice president of communications, said. NMPF wants that assis- tance to be at levels commen- surate with dairy producers’ losses, as opposed to the first round of assistance – which was way off, he said. “There’s a big discrepancy between the pain producers have faced” and USDA’s cal- culated losses, he said. USDA’s own monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates showed a drop in its forecasted milk prices for 2018 of 70 cents per hundredweight between its June and July updates, equat- ing to a loss of $1.5 billion for the year, NMFP said in a letter to USDA. NMPF also commissioned two studies on the impact to dairy farmers, one by Informa Agribusiness Consulting and one by Texas A&M. Those studies calculated losses of $1.5 billion and $1.17 billion, respectively. Based on a $1.5 billion loss and using USDA’s for- mula for assistance, payments would work out to $1.40 per hundredweight, a little shy of 12 times the 12 cents per hun- dredweight paid to producers in the first round of assistance, Peter Vitaliano, NMPF vice president of economic policy and market research, said. “We’re not calling for USDA to match dollar for dol- lar, but there’s really a yawn- ing gap,” Bjerga said. Assistance should be clos- er to the damage, he said. Lynne McBride, executive director of California Dairy Campaign, said 12 cents per hundredweight on half of the country’s milk production is only 6 cents per hundred- weight. “It doesn’t even come close” to the losses producers are suffering, she said. “We just don’t have a safe- ty net anymore in the U.S. when milk prices drop,” she said. And that leads to a need for supply management, she said. “More dairy farmers are looking at this than ever be- fore,” she said. CDC is pushing for inven- tory management in federal farm policy, but it is also criti- cal that trade mitigation assis- tance be tied to some sort of supply management to bring inventory in line with mar- kets, she said. Courtesy Dairy Management Inc. Idaho dairyman honored for contributions to dairy promotion By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Tom Dorsey, a Caldwell, Idaho, dairy farmer was awarded the Richard E Lyng Award for his years of ser- vice to dairy promotion, both regionally and nationally. He was presented the award by the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board (NDB) during the joint NDB, National Milk Producers Federation and United Dairy Industry As- sociation annual meeting in Phoenix. The award is designed to recognize leaders in the dairy community, specifical- ly farmers, Karianne Fallow, CEO of Dairy West, said. Ensuring that there is a strong future as a legacy to others has always been im- portant to Dorsey, she said. The award is named for former USDA Secretary Richard E. Lyng, who played a critical role in implement- ing policies that led to the establishment of the NDB more than 30 years ago. The Lyng Award honors leaders who have made a significant contribution to dairy promo- tion that benefits the entire industry. “Tom represents the very 9 best of farmer leadership,” Brad Scott, a California dairy farmer and chairman of the NDB, said in presenting the award. “He demonstrates endless support for dairy promotion and continuously seeks to make the checkoff the best it can be locally and national- ly,” he said. Dorsey has an unassum- ing, bold leadership style and has used that style to move the industry forward, Fallow said. He helped the industry take steps to be relevant and keep up with a dynamically challenging world, she said. Dorsey served on the Idaho Dairy Products Com- mission board of directors since 2004 and was elected chairman of the commission in 2011 — a position he held until he voluntarily stepped down earlier this year. As chairman, he led ef- forts to unite Idaho and Utah dairy farmers to create a stronger, more cohesive dairy-promotion group. That resulted in the formation of Dairy West in 2017 to allow greater flexibility, growth and the effective use of farm- ers’ checkoff investments, and Dorsey served as its first chairman. “He has a very friendly, appeasing way about him, and people are drawn to him easily. He was the guy to walk into a conversation and light it up,” Fallow said. He also served as a mem- ber of the United Dairy In- dustry Association board for many years and served as UDIA’s first vice chairman. “Tom exemplifies the meaning of service … he has had an important influ- ence on our farmers and our dairy community, and we are grateful for his many contri- butions,” Scott said. Fallow said Dorsey is very caring with a very like- able sense of humor and was always the first to help out new, young leaders on dairy boards. “He took service really seriously,” she said. Dorsey has retired from the boards he served on for years and is retiring from the dairy business, she said. “But I expect he’ll find a way to stay connected,” she said. As part of the Richard E. Lyng Award, the NDB will contribute $2,500 to the Utah State University Department of Animal, Dairy and Veter- inary Sciences in Dorsey’s name. Survey: Consumers think alternatives equivalent to milk By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press A consumer study released by the National Milk Produc- ers Foundation found that the majority of adults surveyed believe alternative milk prod- ucts are nutritionally equiva- lents to cow’s milk. NMFP argues that assump- tion poses a public health risk and contends the FDA needs to end the deceptive labeling of such products as almond milk. Performed by Ipsos, a global market research firm, the survey of more than 2,000 adults found 77 percent of them view almond milk as having the same or more protein compared with dairy milk. It also found 68 per- cent believe it has the same or more key nutrients as cow’s milk. Similar results were found for soy and coconut milks. “We certainly felt that a lot of the findings bolster our case,” Alan Bjerga, NMPF se- nior vice president of commu- nications, said. For instance, the majori- ty of those surveyed believe almond milk is nutritionally equal to or superior to real milk, when in reality it only contains one-eighth of the protein of cow’s milk, he said. Surveys have been done in the past to determine if con- sumers are confused about the source of alternative products, and the plant-food industry has tied the label debate to that issue saying consumers are not confused, he said. Consumers know that milk alternatives are made from different stuff, but they think the nutrition is similar to real dairy when often it is inferior, he said. “The confusion is about the nutritional content of these beverages,” he said. Media and anecdotal re- ports suggest parents are feed- ing these dairy alternatives to children thinking they are providing sufficient nutrition, he said. “They think they’re the same thing, and they are very different,” he said. And it’s not their fault. The alternative products are packaged and labeled like dairy products and stocked in the dairy case. Consumers are relying on that cue and not the nutrition label, he said. The data shows consum- ers are being misled about the nutritional merits of cow’s milk versus plant-based alter- natives, Jim Mulhern, NMPF president and CEO, said in a press release. “The plant-based food and beverage industry has used FDA inaction as a cover to sell consumers a product that is heavily processed to look like real milk but doesn’t de- liver what matters most — a consistent high-quality pack- age of nutrients,” he said. He said that’s contrary to the national goal of a healthy population and FDA’s mission to promote transparency and fairness. With media reports sug- gesting more U.S. children suffer from nutritionally inad- equate diets, milk labeling “is much more than a sideshow over whether consumers can tell the difference between an almond and a cow,” he said. FDA needs to help con- sumers by clearly distinguish- ing between true milk and water-heavy, nutrition-poor imitators and immediately end the application of the term “milk” to non-dairy products, he said. John Deere Dealers See one of these dealers for a demonstration 45-2/103
