Maine dairy farmers join national pricing debate
Maine dairy farmers are lobbying for changes to the way milk is priced as Washington lawmakers deliberate the country's next five-year Farm Bill.
The Portland Press Herald reported Julie-Marie Bickford, executive director of the Maine Dairy Industry Association, says reforms proposed to that wide-ranging agriculture industry bill don't adequately help the state's dairy farmers, who have struggled to stay afloat in recent years.
The latest Farm Bill proposals from the House and Senate cut out an existing safety-net program in exchange for a "margin insurance" program to help cover losses.
Bickford and her organization argue that the pricing system needs a more comprehensive overhaul that moves away from federal subsidies and allows for regional or local pricing. That, she told the paper, would bring prices more in line with the cost of producing milk.
As milk pricing and dairy subsidies hold up passage of the Farm Bill, an amendment co-sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., calls for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to hold public hearings around the country to get suggestions on long-term dairy policy reform, the paper reported.
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