Dairy Defined

The federal government is seeking comments related to the next iteration of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as it reviews the science behind healthy eating, with a plan expected next year. Dairy has always had a central role in proper nutrition, and newer science reinforces that. That doesn’t mean the process is easy, two experts said in a Dairy Defined podcast released today. 

“One of the biggest distinguishing factors in this year's advisory committee is a focus on using a health equity lens to ensure that the committee considers factors such as socioeconomic position, food security, race, and, or ethnicity and culture,” said Brandon Lipps, who during his time as  USDA deputy undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, oversaw the writing of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services. “With products like milk that have so many available nutrients, we can serve Americans so well. And we need to make sure that the committee thinks about the basics when they're talking about that.”

Lipps, co-founder of Caprock Strategies, was joined by NMPF Director of Regulatory Affairs Miquela Hanselman in the podcast. 

USDA’s plan for modernizing the Federal Milk Marketing Order system aligns well with the principles outlined in NMPF’s own proposals, NMPF economists Peter Vitaliano and Stephen Cain said in a Dairy Defined Podcast released today. Still, analysis is ongoing, and NMPF will be suggesting improvements during a public comment period that lasts through mid-September. 

“It's important that we have a national system that helps level the playing field across the country,” said Cain, NMPF’s senior director for economic research and analysis. “We do not want regulation to create winners and losers or incentivize actions that distort the marketplace or market dynamics in any way.

With FDA’s review complete, Elanco’s Bovaer is getting ready for the U.S. marketplace. But the methane-reducing feed additive’s success will be as much about economic as environmental sustainability, said Katie Cook, Elanco's Vice President of Livestock Sustainability and Farm Animal Marketing, in a Dairy Defined podcast released today. 

“The biggest thing, and the thing that's most important, is not only are we making sure that we're providing an environmental sustainability practice to our producers, but most importantly we're providing them with additional profitability,” Cook said. “It's a key tool as we think about telling our dairy story and the value that our dairy products bring to consumers. But more importantly, as a producer, it's also giving you an additional revenue stream as we think about the economic viability of our farms' longer term.”

Dairy farmers are descending on Washington next week, as NMPF's Young Cooperators lead the organization’s annual fly-in. Hannah and Matthew Lansing, this year’s chairs for the YC Program, say policy engagement is critical to dairy’s future. 

“There are so many things that affect us, but they don't affect us in a way that we see every day,” said Matthew Lansing, who along with his wife and her family milk 1,100 cows and farm more than 5,000 acres at Blue Hill Dairy in Clinton, Iowa. said. “Keeping involved and up-to-date as much as we can and pushing for things that we need on a farm on a day-to-day basis is really key for us to propel forward into the future and be what we need to be for consumers going forward.”

You can find and subscribe to the Dairy Defined podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music under the podcast name “Dairy Defined.” For more on the YC Program, click here. 

Media outlets may use clips from the podcast on the condition of attribution to the National Milk Producers Federation. 

Biosecurity – what it is, and how to achieve it – is at the top of every dairy farmer’s mind as cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) have been found in dairy cattle in several states. Every farmer can take simple, but meaningful, steps to ensure a well-protected industry, said Karen Jordan, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, chairwoman of the National Dairy FARM Program’s animal care task force, and a member of NMPF’s Board of Directors, in a Dairy Defined Podcast released today.

 “When you start trying to protect against organisms that you can't see, that puts you in a whole different ballpark,” said Jordan, who also raises about 200 dairy cattle in Siler City, NC. “The bright side is, we've got a disease that we don't have dead animals. We do have an economic disruption, severely. But this gives us an opportunity to really take a hard look at our farms and see what that biosecurity really needs to look like and then how we really enhance it.” 

 Jordan is joined in the podcast by NMPF’s Chief Science Officer, Jamie Jonker, who is leading NMPF’s HPAI response. 

The briefs are in, and now it’s up to USDA to consider the arguments and craft a proposed modernization for Federal Milk Marketing Orders, which govern milk pricing. NMPF economists Peter Vitaliano and Stephen Cain said they’re confident in the strength of NMPF’s proposals in a Dairy Defined Podcast released today. 

“If you were to read through our brief, I think you'd be struck by the fact that it is an integrated, well-reasoned, constructive proposal for doing some long overdue maintenance on the federal order program to position it for many more years of effective operation,” said Vitaliano, vice president for economic policy and market research at NMPF. “We're very confident that when we see what USDA comes up with in a recommended decision in early July, we're very confident that we've made a good enough case, that a lot of it will be adopted.”

Its Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) hearing now concluded, USDA is now considering more than 12,000 pages of testimony as it formulates its plan for FMMO modernization. NMPF is still doing what it can to ensure that proposal best reflects the interest of dairy farmers and their cooperatives, two NMPF economists said in a Dairy Defined podcast. 

The key to successful modernization is a comprehensive approach that addresses the complexity of federal orders in a way that respects the entire dairy industry while keeping in mind that orders most fundamentally must work for farmers, Dr. Peter Vitaliano, Vice President for Economic Policy and Market Research, and Stephen Cain, Senior Director for Economic Research and Analysis at NMPF. That’s always been the bedrock principle behind NMPF proposals on areas ranging from returning to the “higher-of” Class I mover to updating milk composition factors.

 “What separates National Milk's proposals from processor groups is more of our holistic approach,” Cain said. “You can't look at the federal order system having not been updated in 20 years and not address all facets of the industry, right? You can't say in good faith that Class I differentials need to be updated because costs have gone up without also conceding the fact that make allowances need to go up for the same reason. So we took that holistic approach. That is going to help move the industry forward together.”

With consumer choice scientific research and congressional legislation all going its way, 2024 promises to be a breakthrough year for whole milk, NMPF's Head of Nutrition Policy Claudia Larson and Regulatory Affairs Director Miquela Hanselman said in a Dairy Defined Podcast released today.

The variety that shoppers prefer is poised to return to school lunch menus given the bipartisan approval of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act in the House of Representatives, and it will figure prominently in consideration for updated federal Dietary Guidelines that are due next year. 

“This is important to our students, this is important to our schools, this is important to our parents,” said Larson, a senior director of government relations at NMPF. “Reach out to your senators, let them know that this is important to you and your children in your community and ask them to please co-sponsor the bill.”

NMPF has a call to action urging lawmakers to support the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act here. 

The dairy sector has benefited from strong leadership, as farmers work together to meet today’s challenges, National Milk Producers Federation Chairman Randy Mooney said in a Dairy Defined podcast.

A new farm bill, a national hearing on modernizing the Federal Milk Marketing Order system, and ongoing challenges in sustainability and risk management have challenged dairy farmers, Mooney said in the podcast, taken from his remarks at the organization’s annual meeting in Orlando on Tuesday. Farmers have responded with their trademark resilience, uniting to advance their industry, he said.

“This year we came together as an industry to unite around a number of issues that helped build that resiliency. Together we worked to make every drop count, every meeting, count every call, every email, every handshake,” he said. 

It may be one of NMPF’s most-hidden secrets to its members – an influential quarterly publication that puts dairy’s side of the story before the government regulatory and regulatory experts who directly influence dairy policy. But it’s a secret that’s hiding in plain sight, as the Regulatory Register is a critical part of NMPF regulatory work. And in this week’s Dairy Defined Podcast, the organization’s regulatory team talks about the critical work they’re doing for dairy – and previews the next Register. 

“It's important for us to get our side of the regulatory story out to the broader community, not only the dairy industry itself, but also the regulators at the federal and state level on the variety of issues that happen in the regulatory space that are important for the US dairy industry,” said NMPF’s Chief Science Officer, Jamie Jonker, on the podcast, where he was joined by Senior Vice President for Regulatory Affairs and NMPF Chief Counsel, Clay Detlefsen, and Miquela Hanselman, NMPF’s Director of Regulatory Affairs.