C2-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 14, 2003 Legislative Aides ‘Talk Dairy 9 In Northern Tier CAROLYN N. MOYER Tioga Co. Correspondent WELLSBORO (Tioga Co.) In an effort to gain first-hand input on current dairy issues, Mi chael Oscar, a legislative aide to Senator Arlen Specter, and Ray Stock, V.M.D, a congressional science fellow with Representa tive John Peterson, toured sever al area dairy farms and met dairy farmers to ‘talk dairy” in three Northern Tier Counties recently. “We’re in a situation here as you well know, you’re on the front lines, where milk prices have reached the lowest they’ve been since October of 1978, there’s no question about that. “You may have seen that they rose slightly during this past month, but the picture is still in question. I wanted you to know that we’re trying the best we can to be as helpful as possible in Washington,” said Oscar as he opened the meeting. The two assistants passed out packets containing copies of let ters and other documents relating to several current dairy issues in cluding dairy cost of production, farm versus retail pricing of milk, milk protein concentrates, sup port programs and the dairy compact. “I’ve provided you with the facts. I’ve provided you the let ters that we’ve written. I’ve pro vided you with the responses that we’ve gotten back. “Obviously we’re fourth largest in dairy in the state of Pennsylva nia, but our number one industry is agriculture. Senator Specter be lieves in that and he wants to ad dress that to be has helpful as possible,” said Oscar. First on the agenda, however, and part of the reason the legisla tive aides came to the Northern Tier, was drought assistance monies from last summer. The two aides brought with them the good news that Tioga County farmers would be eligible for drought assistance under the live stock compensation program. Tioga, Fayette, and Green counties were previously ex cluded from the drought disaster designation because accurate crop loss data were not available by the federal deadline. Farm Service Agency Director Sherri Butters noted that the funds have arrived in Tioga County and that payments would be made to area farmers as soon as applications are approved. She also thanked the gentlemen on behalf of Tioga County farmers, for all their hard work in secur ing funds for those counties. “When we entered in this new Congress in January of this year we were very reactive dealing with the drought program. We got that resolved and now we’re trying to be proactive,” said Oscar. Oscar pointed out that milk price talks are ongoing between dairy farmers from across the United States and that it is diffi cult to reach a compromise. “Honestly, from a legislative perspective, it’s a tug of war be tween the Midwest and the Northeast. I don’t think it’s a farmer’s consideration,” said Oscar. “I think the sense of it right now because in the Northeast class I fluid milk is the major consideration for us and because the class 111 cheese price for milk in the Midwest is their concern, we need to come to some kind of agreement and it’s going to be very difficult to do that.” Legislators from the Midwest and the Northeast have however come together to support chang ing the laws to address the milk protein concentrate (MFCs) issue. MFC imports totaled 33,626 metric tons in 2002, according to International Trade Commission data. These MFCs, although not Ray Stock, V.M.D., a Congressional Science Fellow with Representative John Peter son, left, and Michael Oscar, Legislative Aide to Senator Arlen Specter came to the Northern Tier to talk about current dairy issues. While in Pennsylvania, the two met with Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff, toured several dairy farms and the Tioga County Farm Service Agency office, and met with farmers in three counties in three separate meetings. permitted in U.S. Cheese which has a standard of identity with the Food and Drug Administra tion, are used in other products not labeled as cheese. Senate Bill 560 and House Bill 1160 would impose tariff rate quotas on MFCs. Senate Bill 40 would prohibit the use of dry MPC in domestic cheese production. To date, no action has been taken on these bills. The National Milk Produc ers Federation has also filed a formal challenge concerning the U.S. Customs classification of the MFCs, saying that most MFCs coming into this country are a blend of milk casein, nonfat dry milk and whey powder, items that individually would by sub ject to tariffs, but when entering the United States as MFCs, are tariff free. The U.S Customs of fice contends that the MFCs are classified correctly and the mat ter is currently under appeal. Much of what is decided in Washington relies on the depth of the taxpayers’ pockets. “The milk payment program that we have right now is due to sunset in 2005. It was anticipated when it was voted on in the farm bill to only cost one billion dol lars. Currently, right now, it’s at 3.5 billion dollars at the taxpay er’s expense. That’s a lot of money,” said Oscar. “Secondly, as you have indicated to me via writing, via email, via phone call, and in person, (that you feel) the milk payment checks are a wel fare check. “You find them disgraceful and humiliating and you have every right to.” The Senator is now looking at an amendment to the farm bill cosponsored by David Obey and Bernard Sanders, which would include price structures for both class 111 and class I fluid milk. He has also considered reintro ducing the concept of regional compacts for pricing milk. “If we have compact legisla tion, that would take into consid eration class I and class 111 price of milk. There would not be any expense to the taxpayer and there would be a commission that would set the price, so that if the price is lower, you can raise it at the commission’s perspective. “It would have two potential additions that are different than the legislation that was originally introduced. One would be to take into consideration the dairy cost of production, which is a big con cern.” Cost of production issues have been recently brought in the lime light again by Senator Specter since those issues are specifically addressed in the Agricultural Marketing Agreement of 1937, and were brought to the attention of the federal courts in the 19905. No decision was made by the USDA at that time and the Sena tor feels this is an unresolved issue, according to Oscar. “The second point to that is the national part. Basically we would have all the regions. The Northeast would have a regional compact, the southeast would have a regional compact, and so forth, but if a state, for example Hawaii, wants to join the North east Compact, and they want to pay the transportation costs and the feed availability and whatev er it takes to be a part of that Cooperative Council Urges Changes To Strengthen Federal Programs WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Council of Farmer Co operatives (NCFC) called for im mediate action last week at the national level to modernize and strengthen federal programs to better enable farmers to join to gether in cooperative self-help ef forts to improve their income from the marketplace and capi talize on new value-added busi ness opportunities. “Such action is critical,” said NCFC President David Graves, “to meet the challenges of a rap idly changing global marketplace and to keep pace with changing state laws.” A major challenge facing farm ers and their cooperatives is ac cess to capital. Unlike other types of businesses, farmer coopera tives historically have been limited in their ability to attract outside capital necessary for con tinued growth and to capitalize on new business opportunities. In response to the needs of its farmers and cooperatives for greater financial flexibility, Min nesota, which ranks number one among all states with over 300 farmer cooperatives, recently changed its law to allow farmer cooperatives for the first time to bring in outside investors, pro vided the farmer members of the cooperative maintain voting con trol. While the new Minnesota law provides fanners and their coop eratives within the state greater flexibility in terms of how they fi nance and capitalize their busi- market, and the Northeast allows for it, and Hawaii’s compact al lows for it, they would be allowed to enter into that compact,” said Oscar. This flexibility allows for a na tional program which would ad dress everyone’s needs. “Senator Specter doesn’t do things for the short term. He does things for the long term. And, when you look at the long term and the compact, if you get the legislation up and running in the 108th congress, which in the 108th Congress you have 2003 and 2004, by 2005 if the milk payment program sunsets and you have nothing else, and if the compact’s elected in congress nesses, like the Wyoming stature, it raises another set of issues at the federal level. In many in stances, many of these new generation cooperatives and evolving business structures es tablished under such state stat utes may not meet the federal definition of a farmer coopera tive. The federal Farm Credit Act is a good example. Graves said. Al though defined as a farmer coop erative under state law, he ex Renewable Fuels Standard Part Of Senate Energy Bill WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Corn Growers Associa tion (NCGA) called the adoption of the Frist/Daschle renewable fuels standard (RFS) amendment a major victory for the renewable fuels industry. After defeating numerous anti ethanol amendments, the Senate passed the RFS in an overwhelm ing 67-29 vote June 5. The RFS is now part of S. 14, the Senate en ergy bill. NCGA expects the Senate to pass the energy bill prior to the July 4 recess, which will give con ferees the opportunity to meet and discuss the bill throughout July and August. The House passed its energy bill in mid- April. During deliberations, ethanol opponents offered numerous then there’s no price variation, despite the fact that the price is so low, but at least there’s some thing in back of it. If the compact doesn’t go through and the milk payments go out, you’ve got nothing,” said Oscar. Oscar also indicated that they have written letters to the Gener al Accounting Office in regarding the large margins between the farm price of milk and the retail price. A letter co-signed by 12 U.S. Senators and dated March 11, 2003, points out that farm level prices have decreased over 30 percent in the past 18 months while the retail prices fell less than four percent. “This discrepancy in the mag nitude of change in what farmers receive and retailers charge for fluid milk is striking and puz zling. The lack of direct, immedi ate and complete price transmis sion to the consumer when farm milk prices have fallen so dra matically needs explanation,” the letter states. Oscar also touched on other current issues including the dairy options pilot program and Coop eratives Working Together (CWT) and asked for input from the group. Stock, who has worked in Rep resentative Peterson’s office since October, is learning that getting things done in Washington takes time. “It’s been a real eye opener for me. I found out you can get things done, but you have to fig ure out the process,” he said. “The milk price issue has been something that has dominated quite a bit of our time.” Comments or questions about the various programs can be sent to Senator Specter’s office at mi chael-oscar@specter.senate.gov, or to Congressman Peterson’s of fice at ray.stock@mail.house.gov. plained, these new generation cooperatives may no longer be el igible under federal law to bor row from Coßank, which itself is a cooperatively-owned lender and part of the Farm Credit Sys tem established by Congress. “For this reason, it is essential that Congress approve legislation modernizing the federal Farm Credit Act to make sure that farmers and their cooperative businesses continue to have ac cess to a competitive source of capital,” Graves emphasized. amendments to kill RFS legisla tion sponsored by Senate Majori ty Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) RFS legislation. All of the amendments were struck down by solid margins. The defeated amendments in cluded various state exemptions, waivers and liability treatment for ethanol. “This is a huge step in making the RFS a reality, but we’re not yet to the end-game,” Yoder said. “We still need Senate passage of the energy bill and then final leg islation that comes out of confer ence. We are in the seventh in ning stretch.” NCGA is optimistic a compre hensive energy bill will be signed into law by September.
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