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CapitalPress.com
Friday, June 10, 2022
USDA investing to strengthen food system
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
Building on eff orts to expand
meat and poultry processing
capacity, Agriculture Secre-
tary Tom Vilsack on June
1 announced nearly $3 bil-
lion to help transform the
U.S. food system and make it
more resilient.
“We live in a great time of
disruption caused by a chang-
ing climate, a global pan-
demic and an unprovoked
brutal war,” Vilsack said.
“All of which manifests itself
in supply-chain disruptions,
infl ation, unprecedented nat-
ural disasters, growing global
food insecurity and continued
pandemic-related hospitaliza-
tions and deaths.”
“A transformed food sys-
tem is part
of how we
as a coun-
try become
more resil-
ient
and
competitive
Tom Vilsack in the face
of these big
and future challenges and
threats,” he said.
A transformed food sys-
tem will make it easier to
adapt to and mitigate climate
change while not sacrifi cing
agricultural production by
reducing the carbon footprint
of food production, he said.
It will deliver a better deal
for farmers, ranchers and
consumers through more,
new and better markets, also
stimulating the rural econ-
omy. It will lead to better
health outcomes by increas-
ing access to healthy, locally
grown food, he said.
It will also sustainably
produce more food, allowing
the U.S. to meet its global
responsibility to ensure
global food security, he said.
“The transformation that
needs to take place has to
be comprehensive. It has
to touch on all elements
of our food system,” he
said.
There are four basic ele-
ments of the food system —
production, processing, dis-
tribution and aggregation
and market development —
and the transformation has to
wind through all of them, he
said.
The system needs to sus-
tainably grow and raise crops
and livestock with net zero
emissions, increase farm and
New leader joins Washington Cattlemen’s
Association ‘for the long haul’
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Chelsea Hajny takes
over as executive vice
president of the Wash-
ington Cattlemen’s Asso-
ciation on July 1.
She replaces Ashley
House, who left to take
a job with the Colorado
Farm Bureau. House
joined the association in
August 2020.
“I have been an ag kid
my entire life, growing
up on the back of a horse
and with cattle,” Hajny
told the Capital Press.
“I truly believe there are
no better people than ag
people.”
Hajny grew up on
a cattle ranch in North
Idaho and currently raises
Black Angus.
She is chief financial
officer at Hajny Trading,
an export and domes-
tic hay operation she
co-founded in the Kit-
titas Valley. She is also
CEO of Hajny Strate-
gies, which specializes
in sponsorship acqui-
sition for property and
events.
She has also worked as
development and revenue
strategist for the Central
Washington State Fair.
The executive vice
Chelsea Hajny
president position is
full-time.
Hajny said her first
move will be to meet
with ranchers to learn
their needs.
“The priorities of the
membership are going to
quickly become my pri-
orities,” she said. “I’m
just really excited, with
the knowledge and back-
ground that I have, of
what I can bring to the
table for them.”
The fact that Hajny
also has her own con-
sulting company and hay
operation offers “great
synergy,” she said.
“Ag-based clients are
my favorite,” she said.
“They speak to my heart.
Ag people are the salt
of the earth, the kind
of people you want to
know, that you’re lucky
enough to know, that
make this world a great
place to live in.”
“Meeting
Chelsea
for the first time is like
shaking hands with a ray
of sunshine,” said Mark
Streuli, lobbyist for the
association. “Her pos-
itive energy, self-con-
fidence and a love for
the cattle business really
showed when she inter-
viewed with the board.
When you add that to her
accomplished
profes-
sional, executive work
experience, it was very
clear. She will be phe-
nomenal in standing up
for Washington’s cattle
ranchers.”
Hajny pointed to exist-
ing expertise within the
cattlemen’s association
community, from board
members to volunteers.
“I am in this for the
long haul,” she said.
“I am really excited to
impact change and hit
the ground running July
1 and do some really
great things for some
really great people.”
The association rep-
resents more than 1,200
ranch families.
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rural income, build greater
resilience across the entire
food chain, provide access
to nutritious food for all and
guarantee equity of opportu-
nity for all, he said.
“Building the system back
better, stronger and more
resilient requires an unprec-
edented approach, and that
is what we are investing in
at signifi cant levels today,”
he said.
In addition to USDA’s
investments earlier this
year of $1 billion for cli-
mate-smart agriculture and
$1 billion to expand meat
and poultry processing
capacity, Vilsack announced
several new investments to
strengthen the food system.
Those
investments
include:
• $100 million to expand
warehousing and refrigera-
tion capacity at foodbanks
and pantries.
• $150 million to expand
technical assistance to make
sure producers have access
to USDA’s loan and conser-
vation programs.
• $600 million to link
local and regional producers
to USDA commodity pur-
chases for school feeding
programs.
• $300 million for organic
transition.
• $600 million for non-
meat and poultry processing.
• $40 million for work-
force training.
• $155 million to elimi-
nate food deserts.
• $75 million for urban
agriculture.
• $60 million for the Farm
to School Program.
• $50 million for the
Senior Farmers Market
Nutrition Program.
• $40 million for the
Gus Schumacher Nutrition
Incentive Program.
• $100 million for the
new Healthy Food Incen-
tive Program with a focus on
schools.
• $400 million to estab-
lish a network of food busi-
ness centers to share knowl-
edge about USDA programs
to support local and regional
food systems.
• $200 million for spe-
cialty crop food safety
certifi cation.
• $90 million to prevent
food loss and waste.
• $25 million to support
technology for the Supple-
mental Nutrition Assistance
Program.
Dairy group seeks clarifi cation
on milk pricing changes
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
A coalition of dairy
farmers wants specifi cs
from USDA on what is
needed to hold a national
hearing on changing the
milk pricing formula in
federal milk marketing
orders.
Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack in Decem-
ber said the dairy indus-
try must reach a consensus
on milk pricing changes
before USDA will consider
conducting a national hear-
ing on the issue.
In a letter to Vilsack, the
American Dairy Coalition
asked whether he is requir-
ing consensus on the need
for a meeting or on a spe-
cifi c proposal.
“Currently, there is an
industry-wide
consen-
sus that the Class I pricing
change made in the 2018
Farm Bill needs amend-
ing. Some diff erences lie in
how this should be accom-
plished,” the coalition said.
“However, since the change
was made legislatively
without a vetted hearing
process, dairy farmers share
a strong consensus that
‘righting this wrong’ is a
great place to start in open-
ing an FMMO hearing.”
The coalition is based in
Wisconsin.
The issue involves the
Class I mover, which sets
the base price for Class I
milk — sold as beverage —
to which a location diff eren-
tial is added. It was changed
in 2019 from the “higher
of” Class III or IV advance
prices to the “average of”
those two prices plus 74
cents per hundredweight.
The
change
was
intended to provide bet-
ter risk management for
fl uid milk processors. But
it caused unintended con-
sequences when Class III
Capital Press File photo
prices skyrocketed due to
government purchases of
cheese for pandemic-re-
lated food boxes for the
needy.
That left a signifi cant
gap between Class III
and IV prices, pulling the
“average of” lower than
what the previous “higher
of” would have been.
In addition, processors
pulled milk out of federal
order pools to avoid paying
the high Class III prices.
The value in those pools
declined, leading to nega-
tive producer price diff er-
entials, or PPDs. The PPD
is the diff erence between
Class III milk prices and
the prices of the other three
milk classes.
“The change from the
‘higher of’ to an ‘aver-
age-plus’ formula for Class
I milk resulted in the ineq-
uitable loss of ($3 billion)
to dairy farmers. This esti-
mate includes the $750
million cumulative deval-
uation of the Class I milk
price (compared with the
previous Class I mover)
since the new formula
was implemented in May
2019,” the coalition said.
“This created an envi-
ronment
for
massive
de-pooling and nega-
tive PPDs further aff ect-
ing farmers whose milk
is used in all classes, and
in turn, farmers saw addi-
tional losses of premiums
they paid for purchased
risk management tools that
failed to protect them from
the dysfunction that ensued
within and outside of the
FMMOs,” the coalition
said.
The coalition pointed
out the legislation creating
the change states it can be
amended via a USDA hear-
ing process after two years
of implementation.
“Our voice was pre-
empted in the last farm
bill when it came to mak-
ing federal milk pricing
changes, and our dairy
farmer members paid the
price for that. We do not
want to see this happen
again,” the coalition said.
Therefore, it is neces-
sary to return to the previ-
ous Class I mover formula
now, while the industry
continues building consen-
sus about what milk pric-
ing might look like in the
future, the group said.
The group also com-
mented on “make allow-
ances” for processors,
transparent milk pricing
for farmers and forming
a USDA working group
with farmer representa-
tion to review new pricing
solutions.
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