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Issues
Agriculture Milk Marketing
During the 109th Congress, I reintroduced
legislation to reform the federal milk marketing order system,
which has discriminated against producers in the Upper Midwest
by setting a higher price for dairy farmers in proportion
to the distance of their farms from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
My legislation S.869,
would prohibit the Secretary of Agriculture from using distance
or transportation costs from any location as the basis for
pricing milk, unless significant quantities of milk are actually
transported from that location into the recipient market.
I believe that the federal pricing formula is fundamentally
flawed, and that it creates regional disparity between the
Upper Midwest and other parts of the country.
In October of 2000, Congress passed my legislation, the Dairy
Market Enhancement Act of 2000, to establish a fair and accurate
reporting system for manufactured dairy products. This legislation
also requires independent verification for price reporting
and implements measures to ensure compliance with reporting
and verification requirements. This legislation will ensure
the accuracy and reliability of all commodity inventory and
pricing data that USDA uses to set federal order farm milk
prices.
Agriculture
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