Guest Editorial
Take me out to the Farm Bill

by Jerry Kozak

Jerry Kozak is president and CEO for the National Milk Producers Federation. He is a guest columnist for this week’s issue of Cheese Market News®.

As the summer wears on, so does the baseball season, and so does the process of creating a Farm Bill. While the sport of baseball is often used as an apt metaphor for the seasons of our lives, I thought it also is an instructive analogy of where we are in the Farm Bill process in Washington.

Spring training is represented by all the hard work and preparation that various organizations, including the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), put into developing a series of recommendations for how the Farm Bill should look. In truth, that process took most of last year, as we developed a consensus within the producer community. That led to the release earlier this spring of our roster of Farm Bill positions.

But the first pitch, and the first inning, was when the House Subcommittee on Livestock and Dairy developed its initial draft of a comprehensive Farm Bill. That was back in May. The second inning was when the full House Agriculture committee debated and approved its own compromise Farm Bill version earlier this month.

Now, we’re in the third inning of the process: the entire House of Representatives has to vote on the bill. That is happening even as I write this column (and more on that in a moment). In spite of all of the energy spent pitching and batting, we’re still early in the game.

In the fourth inning, the venue shifts to the Senate’s field, where the Agriculture Committee there will have to tackle (to mix sports metaphors) its own version of the Farm Bill. The fifth inning will consist of the full Senate’s consideration of the bill. Both of these innings are not likely to occur until after Labor Day.

In the sixth inning, the House and the Senate leadership will have to hold a conference committee to iron out differences between the two versions. That compromise conference report will then have to be passed by the House (in the seventh inning) and the Senate (in the eighth). The ninth and final inning will come when the president signs the bill into law. If he vetoes it, we’re into extra innings as the ball bounces back to Congress.

The obvious limit to this metaphor is that, unlike with baseball, where a game can go on indefinitely until one team finally scores the winning run, in this game, we’re up against the clock. The current Farm Bill expires in just two months on Sept. 30. If Congress can get a Farm Bill passed by then — and there is not a lot of time left in order to conduct all the activities I’ve just listed — then it becomes increasingly likely that current policy will be extended, probably for a year or two. The alternative is the sudden death of current agricultural policy.

In many respects, that would be a shame because we’ve chalked up some really impressive scores at this point in the game. In the current House Farm Bill, we’ve revised and strengthened the dairy price support program by shifting it from a system supporting milk prices (and not always doing an adequate job at that) to one that supports individual product prices. We’ve made the proper technical fix to finally implement the dairy checkoff on imports. We’ve extended the lifespan of the Dairy Export Incentive Program, and put more teeth into its operation. We’ve established a more definite time frame under which federal milk marketing order hearings and rulemakings must be conducted.

In the area of forward contracting, the House Farm Bill establishes a forward pricing program for manufactured classes of milk that contains important producer safeguards, including provisions that specify that contracts must be voluntary and not coercive and that producers have the ability to ask USDA to review any undesirable behavior. The program also will sunset with the other elements of the Farm Bill package.

The bill also makes positive improvements in other titles of interest to dairy farmers, including conservation, research, nutrition, trade and the environment. It’s a well-rounded bill that dairy farmers should welcome. As with all legislation, the current Farm Bill is a compromise with many good ideas, even if it isn’t perfect.

Just as a great deal of resources go into the staging of a major league game, the effort NMPF has put forth to support a new Farm Bill has been enormous. We’ve consulted with our members as well as with others in the dairy industry, developed a set of principles, convinced members of Congress to support our positions, and are now in the midst of a challenging — but so far productive — process in the House and Senate. We’ve had to compromise at the tactical level, but our strategic priorities remain intact.

As is the case with most sports, it’s always easier to play defense and oppose things, than to go on the offensive to score some runs. But we’re off to a great start, and I know we’ll finish strong.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.