A lot is being said, pros & cons, about the NMPF's Foundation For The Future in the past few weeks. The dairy industry needs something to help substain it if it is to continue supplying the nutrient rich products needed for human health. Dairy producers cannot go thru another 2009 low price cycle. However today the margin is no better then 2009 as imput costs have soared to record levels while milk prices have improved but the margin is not there. Dairy producers don't really want to get "rich" they just want to be able to pay there bills and have a lifestyle comparable to those working in factorys.
I feel FFTF is a start but it needs to be tweeked. Most parts of it will benifit producers across the country but the supply management side is not taking into consideration the deficient production areas. If passed and when the trigger is met to reduct supply because on the whole the U.S. is over producing why penalize deficient areas? These deficient areas will have to reduce the same as everyone else while still bringing in milk from other parts of the U.S. to supply the market plus bring in the reduced amount. This only costs the producers in the deficient who belong to marketing agencys within the areas because the agencies have to supplement the cost for the transportation into the deficient area. This takes money from the producers pay price
Regionalization is something we all try to get away from but sometimes it is inevidial that it be used to help support producersd and consumers in that area. FFTF will work even without regionalization if deficent production areas are taken into account when building the policy.
Just my thoughts.
