U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, Local Food Systems, and Food Safety and Security, will hold a hearing on Wednesday, September 15th at 9:30am to address milk pricing improvements and reforms. Gillibrand will convene a panel of witnesses to receive testimony on the growing need to modernize the Federal Milk Marketing Order System to bring the nation’s dairy pricing into the 21st century market.
Even before the pandemic, dairy farmers across the nation were struggling to make ends meet due to declining milk prices and an increasingly unstable dairy market. Unfair trade practices from foreign countries, increasing production costs, and the drop in fluid milk consumption have all led to the volatility in the market. Since 2003, the United States has lost more than half of the nation’s licensed dairy operations, with nearly 40,000 licensed dairy herds exiting dairy production.
Witnesses to be released prior to the hearing, which will be live-streamed on CSPAN and online here: https://www.agriculture.