News From Vermont's Senate Delegation: Reaction of Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords To "Coalition for Fair Milk Prices" Analysis Of Regional Dairy Compacts

June 8, 1998

Comment by Senator Leahy:

"These baseless attacks on the Northeast England Dairy Compact by special interests awash in money are becoming increasingly shrill. Dairy processors and their consumer front groups no longer even try to hide their incestuous and mutually profitable relationship. If you believe that these groups care about consumers, we have a bridge we want to sell you.

"The `coalition' should be ashamed of the voodoo analysis and tortured assumptions found in their reports. When objective analysts have examined the Northeast Dairy Compact, they have found that it is maintaining the supply of fresh milk to consumers, it is giving farmers a fairer return, and it is ensuring that Northeast has an ongoing, stable source of milk production. The Compact is doing what it was supposed to do."

Comment by Senator Jeffords:

"The International Dairy Foods Association misinformation campaign against the dairy compacts has sunk to a new low. Its gloom and doom predictions regarding the implementation of the Northeast Dairy Compact haven't come true, and the anticompact coalition is running scared. IDFA's actions only prove that they have neither the best interest of the consumer or farmer in mind."

The Vermont lawmakers cited a February '98 report by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which showed that:

• consumer prices for milk after the first six months under the compact on average were 5 cents per gallon lower not higher than retail store prices in the rest of the nation (even though the agency sampled only six stores in two cities, where they knew large chain stores had raised prices);
• OMB could find absolutely no adverse affects for farmers outside the region; in fact, the report notes that some farmers outside the region did better under the compact by selling their milk into the region;
• the compact helped dairy producers by boosting their income about 6 percent, based on blend prices;
• the compact has not added to federal costs in nutrition programs as compared to other regions.