Here are some of the things DPAC wants to accomplish. More is available on their website. To view the news story that goes with this list, click here.
• A transparent and simplified milk pricing system. The group is focusing on market transparency and price discovery, along with policies and changes in federal pricing, to “spur innovation and share market risk among all sectors of the dairy industry” (not just dairy farmers).
• Increased dairy price reporting. The group is working to achieve funding to implement a part of the farm bill they say calls for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to do more frequent (daily) electronic price reporting (with quarterly auditing).
The group also urges mandatory dairy product inventory reporting, with auditing.
• Import assessment. The group urges USDA to implement import assessment of 7.5 cents per hundredweight, with accordance to language in the 2008 farm bill.
• Democracy for dairy farmers. Dairy cooperatives that engage in bloc voting should be required to provide their member farmers with written notices that explain how individual dairy farmers can vote.
• Price support repeal. The group is calling for a repeal of the national Dairy Price Product Support Program, which it says is an “obstacle” to the nation’s position in world markets, and market development. DPAC also calls for repeal of the MILC program.
• Direct the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to receive proposals for a new milk pricing system that reduces the current four-classes of milk to two. DPAC says this would “competitively move milk to its highest value use, eliminate end-product price formulas and eliminate the “make allowances” that are arbitrarily set by the government,” while continuing to set a value for components.
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