A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 8, 1990
Leading Dairy Farmers
(Continued from Pago A 1)
Continued budget cuts were the
center of the farm bill battle. “We
faced a very difficult struggle
against a program of three addi
tional price cuts that would have
lowered the support price to $8.60
by 1993. The advocates of that
approach were in the driver’s
seat,” Barr commented, “but we
fought hard to make sure we
changed it.” The dairy program
got $2 billion more over the next
five years than the budget people
wanted to allot. By stopping furth
er price cuts, and establishing a
$lO.lO floor, dairy farmers have
some measure of protection in the
future.
This is a short term barlllc won.
Now is the lime to consider new
approaches to provide support to
E (Kika) De La Garzar, U.S
Representative, chairman of
the house agricultural
committee.
our industry. Camerlo said, “We
know our weaknesses; when we
are divided we don’t have much
strength. But it is time to re-leam
our strength: what we can achieve
when we are working together in
unison, in harmony.”
Again next year, the dairy
industry will offer input to USDA
to study dairy program alterna
tives that could deal with milk
surpluses above seven billion
pounds.
Barr suggested that Congress
could choose from one of three
paths to follow - Congress could
do nothing, it could adopt some
major changes supported by a
small part of the industry, or it
could agree on program changes
advocated by the Milk Producers
Federation members.
“Wc can work through whatev
er differences we face within the
industry and present an agreed
upon plan to Congress. It has to be
an approach that has minimal
impact on the budget. It also has to
be an approach that we will truly
support, in action as well as
word,” Camcrlo urged. “We must
ask our friends in Congress to
fight for us, just as they ask us to
fight for them,” said Camcrlo.
“Our goal has to be to build a
better organization, to enhance the
Federation’s ability to improve the
economic well-being of dairy far
mes and our cooperatives. From
that goal, we must not retreat,”
concluded Camerlo.
Representative E (Kika) De La
Garza, Chairman of the House
Agriculture Committee said most
of us want a balanced budget, “but
we say, don’t begin with me,
balance it in the other person’s
backyard.”
Commenting on the dairy pro
visions of the new 1990 Farm Bill,
De La Garza said, “I hate assess
ments. But sometimes, they’re the
only way to go. Budget pressures
force us to choose them.” He
believes the door is open to adopt
an effective supply-management
program to enable dairy farmers to
avoid a third assessment mandated
in the new Farm Bill if CCC
purchases are estimated to exceed
seven billion pounds and new
legislation is not enacted by 1992.
“Politics is the art of the possi
ble. Everything is possible at some
point in time.”
“We might be losing the editor
ial wars, but we’re winning the
battles on the floor of Congress,”
stated de la Garza, a member of
the House Agriculture Committee
At the NMPF annual meeting in San Diego last week are, left to right, Fred Butler, presi
dent, Maryland division of Dairymen, Inc.; and directors of NMPF, Gene Kilby, Peach Bot
tom; David Patrick, Woodbine, MD; and Harold Martin, Oxford.
since 1965 and its Chairman since
1991. He noted the growing mar
gins by which the last three Farm
Bills were passed. “We’ve estab-
NMPF President, Tom
Camerlo, Jr.