Feingold Works To Bar Imitation Ingredients in "Natural" Cheese and Reporting System for Storable Dairy Products August 28, 2000 Spencer, WI -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today highlighted two measures he has authored to support Wisconsin’s dairy industry. The first was Feingold’s recently passed bill, the Quality Cheese Act of 2000, to keep imitation cheese ingredients out of cheese bearing the "natural" label. Feingold is also working to pass the Dairy Market Enhancement Act, his legislation to reform the process for reporting storable dairy products. The Quality Cheese Act passed the Senate on July 21st as an amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations bill. Feingold’s measure will disallow the use of dry UF milk in natural cheese products and require USDA to consider the impact on the producer before any other changes may be made to the natural cheese standard. If imitation milk proteins were allowed in cheese bearing the natural label, they could be used in place of the natural milk produced in Wisconsin. "The Quality Cheese Act protects both consumers and dairy farmers by ensuring that cheese bearing the natural label is made with real dairy products," Feingold said. "Let’s keep our standards high by making sure Wisconsin cheese is the real thing, not a cheap imitation." Feingold is also working on another piece of legislation, the Dairy Market Enhancement Act, to make the reporting of storable dairy products mandatory. America’s dairy industry relies on the accuracy of market reports for storable dairy products, but the current voluntary reporting system has led to reporting errors that have been followed by steep price declines in both the cheese and butter markets. "The current reporting system, which relies on voluntary reporting, doesn’t meet the high standards of the rest of the dairy industry," Feingold said. "It’s time to make reporting mandatory, verifiable, and enforceable. Until Congress clamps down on storable dairy product reporting, we leave our dairy farmers vulnerable to reporting mistakes that hurt them in the market, and that’s a risk Wisconsin’s hard working dairy farmers shouldn’t have to take." Feingold's 56th Listening Session of 2000, and his 560th since he was first elected, was held at the at the LuCille Tack Center for the Arts at 9:45 a.m. Feingold’s 57th Listening Session this year, and his 561st since he was first elected, was held at the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport beginning at 4:30 p.m.

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