NFU and NMPF Urge Dairy Price Support
WASHINGTON – National Farmers Union (NFU) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support dairy producers in light of recent misreporting practices of non-fat dry milk (NFDM).
11 May 2007
2 minute read
The NFDM prices reported by the National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) have consistently been below actual prices in the marketplace, resulting in lower prices for dairy producers. This misreporting occurred at a time producers were facing record-high input costs.
In a letter to USDA Secretary Mike Johanns the organizations urged the Secretary to utilize his authority under Section 32 of the Agricultural Act of 1935 to direct existing USDA funds for dairy producer indemnification once the overall impact on dairy producer prices has been determined.
“America’s dairy producers should not be held economically liable for the department’s improper administration of its programs. This misreporting has cost dairy producers millions and left many struggling to survive,” NFU President Tom Buis said. “It is imperative Secretary Johanns uses his authority to initiate Section 32 to aid producers impacted by NASS misreporting.”
NFU and NMPF also urged the Secretary to immediately implement mandatory auditing of product prices and inventories, as directed in 2000 and 2002. The organizations said they are frustrated with USDA’s failure to implement the current statute.
“Longer term, the solution to prevent this situation from happening again is to implement the mandatory reporting and auditing of product prices and inventories, which is what Congress has twice directed the USDA to do,” NMPF President and CEO Jerry Kozak said. “In the short term, however, using the indemnity program is a reasonable approach to salving the economic losses that producers have suffered because of the reporting discrepancies.”
USDA has signaled its willingness to conduct an investigation and thoroughly review the findings and NASS will be conducting a review of 39 plants over the course of the past 52 weeks to determine the extent of further misreporting.
TheCattleSite News Desk
