Five testify at House Ag Committee dairy committee hearing

Rep. Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Ag Committee’s subcommittee on livestock, dairy and poultry, held a hearing on reforming dairy programs in the 2012 Farm Bill, Thursday, April 26. 

Written testimony provided by the witnesses is linked below. More information regarding the 2012 Farm Bill process can be found here.

 

Witness List:

Panel I

Dr. Scott Brown, Assistant Research Professor, Integrated Policy Group, Division of Applied Social Sciences, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, University of Missouri

Mr. Patrick Joseph "Joe" Wright, V&W Farms, Inc., on behalf of Southeast Milk, Inc., Avon Park, Florida

Mr. Tom Barcellos, Board President, Western United Dairymen, Porterville, California

Mr. John Davis, Chief Executive Officer, Davisco Foods International, Inc., on behalf of International Dairy Foods Association, Le Sueur, Minnesota

Mr. Jerry Kozak, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Milk Producers Federation, Arlington, Virginia

 

“At our dairy audit hearing last fall, we got a sense for the inadequacy of some of our current dairy programs. We know that innovative ideas are needed in order to ensure our programs support our producers, facilitate product and market development, and continue to maintain the availability of safe, abundant, and affordable product for our consumers.  While consensus is building around some of the proposed reforms to dairy programs that we can implement in the Farm Bill, today’s hearing focused on some controversial elements, and that’s why it was critical for us to receive the economic analysis that we did in order to gain an understanding about how these new recommendations would work and what their impacts would be,” said Rooney.

 

“As policy makers, we must be sensitive to the different geographical challenges and work to craft a consensus package that meets the needs of most if not all.  It is extremely important that facts and data drive the discussion as we work to craft a solution that will smooth out the roller coaster of highs and lows,” said ranking member Dennis A. Cardoza (D-Calif.).