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“SUPPORTING NATIONAL DAIRY MONTH” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H8367-H8369 on July 20, 2009.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
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SUPPORTING NATIONAL DAIRY MONTH
Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 507) supporting the goals of National Dairy Month, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 507
Whereas, since 1939, June has been celebrated as National Dairy Month;
Whereas there are nearly 70,000 dairy farms throughout the United States, and approximately 99 percent of these farms are family owned;
Whereas the dairy industry in the United States produces more than 170 billion pounds of milk annually and contributes tens of billions of dollars to the economy;
Whereas dairy products are an important source of calcium and have been long recognized as an integral part of a healthy diet for both children and adults;
Whereas dairy farmers are significant contributors to efforts to preserve farmland and the rural character of communities across the country; and
Whereas the dairy industry has been challenged in recent months due to high production costs and low retail prices, which has forced many farms to close: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) supports the goals of National Dairy Month;
(2) encourages States and local governments to observe National Dairy Month with appropriate activities and events that promote the dairy industry;
(3) recognizes the important role that the dairy industry has played in the economic and nutritional well being of Americans;
(4) commends dairy farmers for their continued hard work and commitment to the United States economy and to the preservation of open space; and
(5) encourages all Americans to show their continued support for the dairy industry and dairy farmers.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it is timely that the House considers this resolution, this very important resolution, in support of the goals of National Dairy Month today because our Nation's dairy farmers are providing healthy, nutritious milk and dairy products to millions of American families, even as the families of dairy farmers are facing very tough economic times, very challenging times, Mr. Speaker.
The U.S. dairy industry is an important contributor to our Nation's agriculture economy. The United States leads the world in cows' milk production, accounting for more than $284 million in farm receipts in 2007. Dairy farmers across the country are producing the milk and dairy products that we give to our children and to our grandchildren, knowing that they are getting the nutrients that they need for strong bones and for growing bodies.
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, our Nation's dairy farmers are feeling the severe pain of very difficult and trying economic times that they're experiencing right now. We are committed to doing everything we possibly can to help our dairy farmers through this very challenging time as quickly as we can. Dairy prices remain at historically low levels, and many farmers cannot even get the credit that they need to stay in business. We must help our dairy farmers.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry and food security, I have scheduled the second in a series of three hearings this week to take a very thorough look at the difficult economic conditions facing the dairy industry and to look at the options that we have to help our Nation's dairy farmers. Help them we must, and help them we will to weather these financial difficulties until the economy can recover. We must get our dairy farmers back on their feet where they rightfully belong.
Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of this resolution that will, in some small way, give due recognition to the hard work and to the sacrifices of our Nation's dairy farmers. It will also highlight the importance of dairy products and healthy and balanced diets for the American people and for the people of the world.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I rise in support of H. Res. 507, a resolution supporting the goals of National Dairy Month, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, for the past 70 years, we have celebrated the month of June as National Dairy Month. While there have been some years during this time where dairymen have had cause for celebration, I think we would be hard pressed this year to find a dairyman who is in much of a mood for celebration.
As dairy prices started to rise in 2007, reaching record levels by June of last year, prices started to decline this past September and October, ultimately reaching a devastatingly low price by February. While there has been some slight rebounding in prices, dairymen across the country are still suffering from extremely low prices received in the marketplace and from extremely high prices for inputs, such as feed and fuel. In fact, while the average uniform price in the Northeast Federal milk marketing order for June of 2009 is $11.93 per hundredweight of milk, the USDA estimates that it costs dairymen in my home State of Pennsylvania $27.15 per hundredweight of milk just to produce it.
Mr. Speaker, I recognize that the adoption of this resolution is a bit late this year, but as we honor National Dairy Month for the 70th consecutive year, I ask all of my colleagues to consider the actions we take here in this Capitol Building and how these actions reflect on the small family farming businesses around the country.
Farmers do their best in keeping us well fed and in keeping us clothed and in keeping us housed, and we can, at the very least, consider the financial burdens that we place on these men and women when we contemplate legislation that would dramatically increase their costs of production.
I want to thank my good friend from Georgia for the hearing that he held last week and for the two hearings that we are going to conduct on behalf of the dairy industry. I really appreciate that. I know the dairy farmers of Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional District appreciate that as well, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I now yield as much time as he may need to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney).
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Scott for bringing this resolution, which I sponsored along with 70 other Members, and for bringing it to the floor. His leadership with the farm bill last year that extended the milk subsidy program, which was probably the number one priority of dairy farmers, was critical in terms of trying to keep farms afloat that are hanging on by a thread.
Also, he changed the system of the milk subsidy program to include input costs into the formula for the first time, which, again, is a critical benefit for folks going through a very challenging and difficult time, as the chairman described it and as Mr. Thompson described it.
Usually, Mr. Speaker, these types of resolutions--let's face it--are kind of fluffy. They're here to kind of put the spotlight on a product or on a segment of the economy. Everybody kind of gets up and does a little boosterism for, maybe, their regions of the country; a voice vote is taken, and it's probably forgotten pretty quickly. This year, there is an urgency surrounding the crisis that exists in dairy all across America that, I think, makes this resolution, which is an opportunity to put the spotlight on the challenges that dairy farmers are facing, important for all of us in the Congress and certainly for all of us in the country.
As has been said earlier, we have seen a collapse of dairy prices over the last year. Back in June 2008 when the farm bill passed, the price per hundredweight across America was, roughly, $20. Today, that has literally fallen in half. Exports have fallen by 57 percent, which many experts believe is one of the reasons prices have reached a level where sustainable economics exists for dairy farmers across the country. That export market, along with the world recession, has made it impossible for the normal market forces to keep prices at a level at which farms can sustain their overhead and their input costs.
In the Northeast, particularly in New England, we are seeing the effects of this drastic, dramatic collapse. Ten percent of farms in Connecticut, particularly in eastern Connecticut, which I represent, have gone out of business, and that number has been reflected in other parts of New England. The one thing about a dairy farm going out of business is it's not like an up-and-down cycle. When they go out, they go out for good, and you lose a characteristic of a State's look and its economy that you can never recover again.
That is why it is so important for Chairman Scott to be holding the hearings that he is holding with the Agriculture Committee, to make sure that we do everything we possibly can in this emergency right now to provide immediate support and relief. The ideas are out there in terms of whether or not we need an emergency boost to the milk subsidy program and in terms of whether or not we need to have the Department of Agriculture use its administrative powers to raise the base price for dairy.
It is imperative, again, that we pass this resolution, but that we also do everything we can as a Congress to keep the pressure on. Recently, I was home in Connecticut, and I and Congresswoman DeLauro, the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture in Appropriations, met with a number of farms, Greenbacker Farms, Cushman Farms. These are farms that go back literally to the colonial days of our country which are now facing a death spiral in terms of having to borrow to pay operating costs just to keep the bills paid and their workforces going to work every day and with paychecks.
If we do not intervene, we are going to lose a part of our economy that we can really never recover again. There is a bumper sticker out there that some of you may have seen and that some of you may have on your cars, like I do on my car, which says, ``No farms, no food.''
At some point, we, as a Nation, have to recognize that if we do not come up with agriculture policies that allow for sustainable farms in our country, then we are going to lose, not just those wonderful families and parts of our economy, but also critical parts of our food supply. You only have to look at recent events, in terms of the damage that has been done to American citizens from unsafe food imported into this country, to know the stakes could not be higher.
So I applaud the chairman for bringing out this committee. I appreciate the bipartisan support for this resolution. Obviously, it's a resolution which deserves our support, but we need to follow up on it with real acts and with real action by the Congress to make sure that we deal with this emergency crisis that exists here today. I hope the strong support that we're going to see around this resolution will be reflected in those efforts.
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Connecticut just spoke. He has been putting in a tremendous amount of energy in coming before our committee and in giving us expert testimony as he did last week.
I just want to commend you, Mr. Courtney, on what you are doing. Your constituents are certainly prouder than ever. I join with you in making sure that we adequately respond to the pressing needs.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to another distinguished gentleman, the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Welch) as much time as he may consume. He is one of my colleagues who also came before our committee and who has been putting in tireless hours on this great, great crisis in our dairy industry that we are facing.
Mr. WELCH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. It is a pleasure to work with you on this important legislation, on this important resolution.
Mr. Speaker, as my friend and colleague from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) said, our dairy farms face a crisis they've never ever seen. The crisis they face is not of their own making. Farmers have to live with the uncertainty of nature. They have to live with the uncertainty of a collapse of an export market. That's what happened when there was the melamine scare in China. They have to live with the uncertainty of an economy where prices in the purchasing of cheese in secondary, non-
fluid milk products have come down with the recession. Yet the importance of our having local agricultural activities in all of our districts has never been more important.
People want and need local agriculture. In my State, it's dairy. That's the backbone of our agricultural industry. In your State, it may be wheat; it may be potatoes. In States across the country where there is local agriculture, it serves not just the needs of our farmers who make a very good, a very decent and a very honest living from working the land; it serves the health needs of our citizens.
It serves the environmental needs of our countryside. The farmers are the custodians of our landscape. That's certainly true in Vermont, which is to the benefit of all of us. It is certainly to the benefit of our tourism industry.
Mr. Speaker, the crisis that the farmers face right now, particularly in dairy, where there's that disparity between what it costs them to produce milk and what they're being paid, is not survivable unless we do two things:
One, provide short-term relief. We must find a way to increase the milk support payments on a temporary basis to help them get through the fall. If we fail to do that, they will fail themselves, and that would be a tragedy, because these farms, once gone, are gone forever and, with it, the environmental values, the land values, and the benefit to all of us to have local food production.
The average distance of farm to table for food products that we eat is about 1,500 miles. Think about the energy consumption that we're wasting and what we can preserve if we keep production local.
The second thing we have to do is what we have known since the era of the Depression, and that is we have to have stable pricing and adjustments so that farmers can weather the ups and downs in the cycle over which they have no control.
Now, I want to remind folks of something Mr. Courtney said when we were before Mr. Scott's committee. We bailed out the financial industry with billions and billions of dollars, and the reason was that they were too big to fail. It was not because they had been responsible and had done everything within their power to avoid the catastrophe. In fact, they caused the catastrophe.
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Yet because they were too big to fail, in order to mitigate the impact on innocent people, the taxpayers came to the rescue.
Now, is it the case that with our farmers, they are too small to matter? What kind of Congress is it if that's the verdict that we come to when it comes to our farmers who, through no fault of their own--
unlike Wall Street--who through no fault of their own find themselves in a real jam.
Mr. Speaker, we have to take extraordinary action because this is an extraordinary time, and it's deserved because these are extraordinary people. This resolution is allowing us to focus attention where it needs to be on some of the best people among us in this country--and that's our dairy farmers, the folks would work the land, day in and day out, year in and year out, generation to generation.
Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, as we close out on this bill, I just cannot think of more appropriate words at this time than those words that were said by one of our great Founders. It might be very appropriate now as we look at the crisis facing the dairy industry. That Founder was Alexander Hamilton, Mr. Speaker. And Alexander Hamilton said these words: that the greatness of our Nation and the Federal Government of our Nation shines at its brightest at our moment of crisis.
Well, this is a crisis, Mr. Speaker. It is a very special, unique crisis that is facing a very special and beloved industry--ice cream, milk, our cheeses, our butters--our dairy farmers. All across this country from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Ocean, from Texas to Vermont and Connecticut, there is no industry that represents the grandeur and the greatness of America as our dairy industry. And it is time for this Federal Government to do precisely what Alexander Hamilton spoke of when he said, At the time of crisis is when our Nation shines at its most brilliant. Let this Nation, let this Federal Government shine on the dairy industry now.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) that the House suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 507, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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