The USDA has scheduled a hearing to consider proposals to establish a Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) in California. The hearing will begin on September 22, 2015 at 9:00 am at the Clovis Veterans Memorial District Building and is expected to last days, if not weeks.
In response to the announcement, Milk Producers Council General Manager Rob Vandenheuvel issued the following statement:
“Milk Producers Council’s Board of Directors is excited to see this important process move forward. While California’s dairy industry thrived for many years under its State-run Marketing Order, that system has failed to facilitate a competitive farm-gate milk price in recent years, resulting in our State’s manufacturers receiving a massive ‘California Discount’ on the milk they buy, to the tune of nearly $2 billion over the past five-plus years. We greatly appreciate the leadership of the State’s three major dairy cooperatives in submitting their proposal for a California Federal Milk Marketing Order, and join with our fellow producer-run trade associations in strongly supporting that proposal. We look forward to the opportunity to present our case to USDA in the upcoming hearing.”
USDA identified the four proposals that will be considered in the upcoming hearing. The proposals were submitted by (the first two are complete proposals; the last two are focused only on specific pieces of a CA-FMMO):
– The three major California cooperatives (California Dairies, Inc., Dairy Farmers of America and Land O’Lakes) (with unified support from the boards of California Dairy Campaign, MPC and Western United Dairymen)
– The Dairy Institute of California (on behalf of the California milk processors they represent)
– The California Producer Handler Association (on behalf of Foster Dairy Farms, Hollandia Dairy, Producers Dairy Foods and Rockview Dairies)
– Ponderosa Dairy (a large dairy farm in Amargosa Valley, Nevada)