The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service once again approved the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Animal Care Program’s animal welfare standards, determining that the program’s 4th version meets the requirements of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Specification. FARM was the first animal-care program in the world to have its updated standards verified through this …

Judge Aspinwall denied Stop QIP’s Chapter 3.5 petition for a referendum, claiming it to be “legally defective.” Last month, a hearing was held to review Stop QIP’s petition to suspend Chapter 3.5 of the California Food and Agriculture Code. The hearing was presided over by an Administrative Law Judge, and the question being considered was whether or not a referendum …

One of the state’s leading experts on the role of animal agriculture in climate change today urged legislators to oppose Assembly Bill 2959, legislation that would result in more food waste ending up in the state’s landfills. University of California, Davis Professor Dr. Frank Mitloehner, who has received awards from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Distinguished Service …

United Dairy Families of California —Today, the industry-generated petition to implement a sunset plan to the QIP was qualified by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). The petition qualified with 28% of the number of Market Milk producers operating in California in May 2020. CDFA anticipates holding a Producer Review Board meeting in August followed by a public hearing to …

As we approach the Stop QIP v CDFA court hearing date rescheduled for July 31, we received a lot of questions on the topic and if this proceeding is different than the Chapter 3.5 hearing we went through in June. Below you will find a list of commonly asked questions as well as a few others of interest regarding quota. If 
QIP …

This week the American Dairy Coalition sent a letter to Secretary Perdue of the U.S Department of Agriculture and Secretary Azar of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requesting they look into concerns farmers have with the draft of the Dietary Guidelines for America. The Dietary Guidelines for America (DGA), which is updated every 5 years, sets our nation’s leading nutrition …

Association (IDFA) today announced that 28 future leaders of the dairy industry have been accepted into the second class of the NextGen Leadership Program, a signature program of IDFA’s People Strategy. The group of emerging leaders represent the diversity of people and business types across the dairy industry, and they have been identified by their companies as tomorrow’s industry leaders. “Identifying and …

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) announces that Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) safety-net signup for 2021 coverage will begin October 12 and will run through December 11, 2020. DMC has already triggered payments for two months for producers who signed up for 2020 coverage. “If we’ve learned anything in the past six months, it’s to expect the …

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) sharply criticized Canada’s allocation of its tariff-rate quotas (TRQ) under USMCA, released Tuesday, June 15. USDEC and NMPF call attention to the fact that these TRQ allocations undermine the intent of USCMA’s dairy provisions by thwarting the ability of the U.S. dairy industry to make full use of …

Quota has been a real sensitive topic of contention over the past year for California dairy producers, and things seemed to really escalate right up to the World Ag Expo, when the United Dairy Families of California presented a five year plan to potentially terminate the California Quota Implementation Plan (QIP).  Things slowed down with the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, …