As a way of “assisting the stalled marketplace for dairy producers” and feeding hungry families, the USDA has chose to spend $20 million on 11 million pounds of the stuff and donate it to “food banks and pantries across the nation”.
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The Department of Agriculture plans to buy $20 million of cheese to distribute to food banks and pantries nationwide, attempting to boost dairy prices that plummeted in a global milk glut.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press release that the purchase is “part of a robust, comprehensive safety net that will help reduce a cheese surplus that is at a 30-year high while, at the same time, moving a high-protein food to the tables of those most in need”.
NMPF estimated that a cheese buying program of up to $150 million would remove the equivalent of nearly 900 million lb. of milk from the domestic commercial market and strengthen farm-level prices by about 16 cents/cwt. over the course of a year, increasing the incomes of all USA dairy farmers by approximately $380 million. ” While that may conjure images of a secretive cheese chamber below Washington, DC, the USDA is referring to donating the dairy to food banks and nutrition assistance programs”.
“We will continue to assess the economic situation facing dairy farmers, and suggest ways to help farmers endure this lengthy period of low prices”.
The USDA also announced it will extend the deadline from September 30 to December 16 for dairy producers to enroll in a safety net program known as the Margin Protection Program.
Here at Farm Bureau we supported those members of Congress by writing a letter asking USDA to use its authority for some food purchasing programs. He said the cheese surplus is at a 30-year high.
Dairy lobbyists had asked the USDA for up to $150 million in cheese purchases.
Whether the USDA will also buy 11 million pounds of Lactaid has yet to be seen.
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Milk prices are expected to increase the rest of this year, the USDA reports, but low world prices, increased milk supplies and sluggish demand are expected to keep prices lower than American farmers need to make profits.
