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Thompson supports allowing better milk pricing discussions at hearings

The Congressman in line to become the next House Ag Committee chair wants to allow more vibrant discussions about milk pricing.  Republican Glenn GT Thompson tells Brownfield he supports a suggestion to add language to the farm bill that allows more discussion about issues in a Federal Milk Marketing Order hearing. He says, “I’m open to that. Yeah, I think we need to have that candid conversation.”

Thompson says the U.S. has lost many dairy farms and the trend needs to be reversed. “So I think its fair to have the hearings, have the conversation, to really do a critical analysis on current policy and how it’s working or how it’s failing, and without having that conversation, we don’t know where we go to from here.”

The suggestion to change statutes to allow more in-depth discussion during a Federal Milk Marketing Order hearing came from Dr. Marin Bozic, a dairy economist with the University of Minnesota and Edge Dairy Farmers Cooperative during the American Farm Bureau Federation’s milk pricing summit held in Kansas City in October.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has said he’s not willing to open the hearing process unless the dairy industry comes to USDA with a consensus plan, which hasn’t happened yet.