Feingold Stands Up For Wisconsin Dairy Farmers Feingold's Legislation Eliminates Wisconsin and Midwest Dairy Farmer Inequities Under the Federal Milk Marketing Order System April 21, 2005 Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today continued to highlight his agricultural initiatives this week by introducing the Federal Milk Marketing Reform Act of 2005. Under the current archaic law, the price for milk increases depending on the distance from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, even though most milk marketing orders do not receive any milk from Wisconsin. The legislation Feingold introduced today will prohibit the Secretary of Agriculture from using distance or transportation costs from any location as the basis for pricing milk . This bill also requires the Secretary to report to Congress on specifically which criteria are used to set milk prices, and the Secretary will also have to certify to Congress that the criteria used by the Department do not in any way attempt to circumvent the prohibition on using distance or transportation cost as a basis for pricing milk. "At a time when our farmers in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest continue to be hurt by the dropping cost of milk, my legislation is a common-sense way to help lift some of that burden," Feingold said. "We need to fix the problem of a market where the government is setting the prices and providing an artificial advantage to regions outside the Upper Midwest." While this system has been around since 1937, the practice of basing fluid milk price differentials on the distance from Eau Claire was formalized in the 1960's, when the Upper Midwest arguably was the primary reserve for additional supplies of milk. However, that is no longer the case. The Upper Midwest is neither the lowest cost production area nor a primary source of reserve supplies of milk. In many of the markets with higher fluid milk differentials, milk is produced efficiently, and in some cases, at lower cost than the upper Midwest. Unfortunately, the prices didn't adjust with changing economic conditions. Feingold's bill simply levels the playing field for Wisconsin farmers to compete with farmers throughout the nation. "By providing disparate profits for producers in other parts of the country and creating artificial economic incentives for milk production, Wisconsin producers have seen national surpluses rise, and milk prices fall," Feingold said. "Our farmers can succeed as long as we let them compete on a level playing field with the rest of the country."

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