WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 27, 2009) — At a Senate agriculture committee hearing today, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar called on the federal government to do more to help dairy farmers who have seen their livelihoods threatened by a sharp decrease in dairy commodity prices. At the hearing, which examined ways for the federal government to respond to the low dairy prices, Klobuchar questioned witnesses about possible long-term solutions for the dairy industry and also spoke about her recent visits to small dairy farms in Minnesota. Klobuchar has met with dairy farmers from throughout the state. In September, she was the featured guest at a Minnesota Milk Producers’ event in Foley.
“Dairy farmers in Minnesota and across the country are hurting from the low dairy prices,” said Klobuchar, a member of the Senate agriculture committee. “We have started to provide relief for dairy farmers but they are not out of the woods yet. I will continue to fight for Minnesota’s farmers during these difficult times.”
During the hearing, Klobuchar underscored the statewide impact of low dairy prices. Minnesota is the sixth largest dairy producing state and is home to nearly a half million dairy cows who together produce nearly 9 billion pounds of dairy products each year. She noted that the price of milk has dropped from $19 per hundredweight to $11 per hundredweight. From January through September 2009, the all-milk price received by farmers was 36 percent below a year earlier.
Klobuchar also asked the panelists including Paul Toft, chairman of the Associated Milk Producers, which is based out of New Ulm, about the obstacles for increasing dairy exports.
In response to a question about the current status of the low dairy prices, Toft said, “there are people out there putting feed cost on their credit cards.”
In September, Klobuchar co-sponsored an amendment that would provide the U.S. Department of Agriculture with $350 million to provide additional relief to dairy farmers.
Over the last several months, Klobuchar has advocated for a host of actions to help dairy farmers get through the crisis.
In July, Klobuchar sent a letter with Vermont Sens. Pat Leahy and Bernie Sanders asking USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to temporarily boost price supports for dairy farmers. She then met with Vilsack, and soon after that meeting, the USDA raised the federal price supports effective August 2009 through October 2009, increasing farmers’ revenue by $243 million.
In May, after working with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the USDA, Klobuchar announced that the USDA would launch a program to help dairy exporters compete with world prices, which are kept artificially low through subsidies.
In February, she joined with other senators to send a letter to Vilsack asking him to take action to help stabilize prices and protect Minnesota’s farmers from the rapidly declining milk prices. Then, at a White House Middle-Class Task Force meeting in St. Cloud in March, Klobuchar strongly urged Vilsack to provide help to Minnesota dairy farmers as soon as possible. Shortly after the meeting, Klobuchar announced that the USDA would create a program to purchase dairy products from the market and provide them to food shelf programs in order to stabilize prices and boost demand, effectively leveling the playing field for U.S. dairy producers.
This article was submitted by the office of Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
