The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture says now is the time to act on the recommendations to dairy policy submitted by the Dairy Industry Advisory Committee.

“If we don’t act, if we simply put all of this on the shelf and say ‘dairy prices are better now, so happy days are here again,’ this is one area for us to act now, [because price instability and volatility are] driving a lot of folks out of business. And we’ve lost nearly half of our producers in the last 10 years,” Secretary Tom Vilsack said during a news conference at the recent Commodity Classic.

Vilsack said that many of the recommendations the USDA could act upon without any change to current laws, but some will require legislative action.

You can hear more of what Vilsack had to say here: Vilsack on the Dairy Industry Advisory Committee report