Statement of Jerry Slominski, IDFA Senior Vice President of Legislative and Economic Affairs, On House Farm Bill Vote

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Today's passage of the Farm Bill by the House of Representatives brings us one step closer to historic dairy policy reform and proves that we can help dairy farmers without raising the prices of dairy products for consumers and for government programs. Although today's vote was close due to differences over the SNAP program, the Farm Bill now passed by the House includes the Goodlatte-Scott amendment, which was passed by a margin of more than 2-1, 291- 135, and was supported by nearly all Republicans and almost half of the Democrats.

"The Goodlatte-Scott amendment soundly rejected a controversial policy that would have periodically imposed limits on the amount of milk that dairy farmers could sell. Instead, the amendment replaces current dairy programs with a new, effective and expanded safety net program for dairy farmers in the form of revenue insurance that is similar to government-subsidized programs for other agriculture commodities.

"The House-passed version of the Farm Bill will allow our industry to continue to grow and create thousands more jobs. The Senate-passed version of the Farm Bill, however, continues to include the divisive milk supply management policy that is opposed by national consumer groups, supermarket chains, restaurants, taxpayers, the Teamsters union and many dairy producers, including the second-largest dairy cooperative.

"We support the aid to dairy farmers in the House bill, but we oppose the Senate dairy package. We will continue to educate the Senate and House conferees, showing that we can help dairy farmers through difficult economic times without making it more difficult for millions of families to afford healthy and nutritious dairy products."

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies representing a $125-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's 220 dairy processing members run nearly 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85% of the milk, cultured products, cheese and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found at www.idfa.org.

SOURCE International Dairy Foods Association

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