U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) led a congressional call on Thursday for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide relief to dairy farmers facing declining milk prices.
The bipartisan letter, which was signed by more than 60 senators and representatives, calls on Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to use existing federal authority to grow U.S. domestic markets to encourage domestic consumption of dairy products and to provide assistance to dairy farmers.
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and U.S. Reps. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA), Ryan Costello (R-PA), Chris Gibson (R-NY), John Katko (R-NY), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Tom Marino (R-PA), Patrick Meehan (R-PA) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) were among those who signed the letter.
“Our dairy farmers have been hit extremely hard by low farm milk prices that have resulted in sharply reduced incomes, which is placing our nation’s dairy industry in an extremely vulnerable position,” the letter states. “A number of factors have contributed to this crisis. U.S. milk production has increased almost two percent above last year’s level, while global milk production is up significantly, partly as a result of the European Union’s decision to remove its milk production quotas and the loss of their export market to Russia.”
An increase in production in other major milk-producing countries has led to depressed prices globally, the letter states.
“We are deeply concerned that U.S. dairy farmers, who are a key part of our agriculture community and agriculture economy, are in greater need of stability and support as they face these significantly lower prices,” the letter states. “We encourage USDA to take any and all actions available in order to make an immediate market injection and offer financial assistance that will directly support U.S. dairy farmers equally.”