Washington, D.C.—The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives today expressed its strong opposition to a proposed amendment to the House Agriculture Committee farm bill that would change key components of the dairy reform package contained in the bill.
The amendment, offered by Representatives Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and David Scott (D-Ga.), would effectively separate participation in the market stabilization program from other parts of the dairy program contained in the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act.
“These dairy reforms are the result of years of hard work and consensus-building by dairy farmers, their co-ops and the National Milk Producers Federation; the program, which is entirely voluntary, has been carefully crafted and balanced to meet the needs of producers and consumers,” said Chuck Conner, president and CEO of NCFC. “We strongly urge members of the House Agriculture Committee to vote against the Goodlatte-Scott dairy amendment during markup of FARRM tomorrow.”