The Senate Agriculture Committee held its first field hearing on farm policy Friday in Albany, Georgia. One of those who testified was Tom Thompson with the Georgia Milk Producers who told the committee that “dairymen located in the Southeast are endanger of extinction. According to trendlines from the Federal Milk Marketing administrator’s office in Atlanta, without a change in the rules, the present trend lines indicate that virtually no dairies will exist in the southeast in the next ten years.” Thompson gave the committee several recommendations, including geographical reduction in the southeast order, restoring the relationship between plant utilization and production and the geographical proximity to those plants.
“Locally produced fluid milk for local consumption just makes good common sense,” he says.
Listen to Thompson’s complete testimony before the committee here. Hearing Testimony (6 min MP3)