Contacts:
Diane Bothfeld, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, (802) 828-3835
Kelly Loftus, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, (802) 828-3829

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Montpelier, Vt – At the most recent Northeast Association of the State Departments of Agriculture, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee joined his counterparts in the Northeast to draft and sign a resolution requesting action by dairy cooperatives and the National Milk Producers Federation to bring better pricing to dairy farmers. The full resolution can be viewed at: www.vermontagriculture.com.

“Our dairy farmers are facing an unprecedented challenge and something must be done now or we face losing dairy farms and perhaps a viable dairy industry in Vermont and the Northeast,” said Allbee. “Once land is sold and farms cease to operate, the landscape is forever changed. Dairy farmers need your assistance to maintain the open, actively farmed land in Vermont and the Northeast that we all enjoy.”

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), in response to the ongoing severe economic challenges facing the dairy producer economy, has created a special task force to examine these challenges and suggest possible solutions.

Building on this, the secretaries and commissioners from the Northeast, recognizing the critical nature of the dairy industry to our collective states drafted this resolution to encourage NMPF to act quickly and aggressively to improve the situation of our dairy farmers.

The resolution states, in part: BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Northeast Association of the State Departments of Agriculture does hereby call upon the dairy cooperatives and their national trade association, The National Milk Producers Federation, to take immediate action beyond the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program, to bring increased price stability and income enhancement immediately to dairy farmers across the country, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the leadership be urged to work cooperatively with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and his staff as well as Congressional leadership on these issues in so much as federal policies and procedures have an impact on domestic and international dairy prices.

“The dairy pricing system is broken. It doesn’t work. We all know this and as leaders in the dairy industry, it would be an absolute travesty not to use this unprecedented downturn in milk prices to make significant, far reaching, long lasting reforms to build stability in the dairy markets,” commented Allbee.