Hard-pressed dairy farmers seek to change the price of milk
US - Milk producers are getting behind a proposed federal bill they say would “return a fair price to dairy farmers” and stabilize prices for consumers.
23 March 2007
2 minute read
Hosted by the Pennsylvania Farmers Union, the meeting focused on the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2007, a bill proposed by a consortium of more than 33 grassroots farming and rural organizations.
“This piece of legislation is significant because it changes how we price milk,” Pennsylvania Farmers Union president Larry Breech said.
Many dairy farmers, not only in Pennsylvania but nationwide, cannot afford to operate their farms because the price of milk does not cover production costs and leave enough left over to raise their families, said Carroll Wade, a director with the National Farm Organization.
According to Wade, 97 percent of the respondents to a recent national survey said they could not survive long-term with current milk prices.
Bill co-author Arden Tewksbury of Meshoppen, who is manager of the Progressive Agriculture Organization, said he painstakingly crafted the bill over the course of several months, during which he worked with the staff of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
Progressive Agriculture, the National Farmers Union and more than 30 other organizations are part of a consortium of grassroots farm and rural organizations called the National Family Farm Coalition.
The coalition is the principal organization backing the bill.
“I’d bet my life on it,” Tewksbury said when asked if he thought Specter would support the bill.
Source: Williamsport Sun-Gazette
