Leahy Urges USDA
To Protect Dairy Farmers
…Tells Veneman To Avoid Flooding Market With Surplus Butter

(FRIDAY, Sept. 26) –Sen. Patrick Leahy led a group of 16 senators, including Sen. Jim Jeffords, Friday urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reconsider its decision to sell up to 11 million pounds of surplus butter on the commercial market.  The sale of the butter could significantly lower the farm price of milk, hurting Vermont’s dairy farmers already suffering from a 20 month period of record low farm milk prices.

In a letter to Secretary Ann Veneman, the coalition urged the USDA to instead donate the butter to America’s Second Harvest, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the U.S.  Leahy recently learned from America’s Second Harvest that they are interested in distributing the surplus butter to food banks across the country.  The USDA had earlier claimed no organization had interest in distributing the surplus butter, acquired by the USDA as part of the USDA’s price support program.

 “The USDA’s current plan could artificially saturate the butter market hurting American dairy farmers,” said Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, which has jurisdiction over the USDA.   “But, if the USDA donated the butter, it would create a win-win situation.  Those in need would have dairy products made available to them, and our dairy farmers who are already suffering from drastically low farm milk prices might be able to watch the price of milk stabilize.”

Butter is one of the driving forces in determining the milk prices for dairy farmers, Leahy said.  Immediately following the USDA’s announcement to donate the surplus butter, in August market butter prices dropped three cents. 

Leahy and Jeffords were joined by Sens. Specter (R-Penn.), Kohl (D-Wis.), Dayton (D-Minn.), Collins (R-Maine), Landrieu (D-La.), Coleman (R-Minn.), Kerry (D-Mass.), Kennedy (D-Mass.), Clinton (D-N.Y.), Breaux (D-La.), Snowe (R-Maine), Feingold (D-Wis), Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Boxer (D-Calif.) on the letter.

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[click here to view a text copy of the letter]