The debate in Congress over the fiscal cliff has delayed consideration of a new farm bill. Because of that, an obscure 1949 dairy price support law would go into effect on January 1, sending milk and cheese prices soaring by the end of January.
Lawmakers and federal officials say Congress could still approve legislation blocking the 1949 law, or they could pass a temporary extension to the 2008 farm bill. “We are exploring all options to prevent the 1949 farm bill from taking effect, especially as it relates to dairy policy,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R., Okla.) said. Most of the previous farm bill expired on Sept. 30, but the dairy section expires at year-end.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it is preparing for the possibility that lawmakers don’t halt the 1949 pricing law. The department could spend months drawing up implementation plans for the higher-pricing policy, which would effectively delay the increase. But without any permanent legislation, the Department of Agriculture would have to begin buying milk at very high prices, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters earlier this month. That would mean shoppers would face “more costly milk products in grocery stores,” and food processors would likely turn to dairy substitutes, he said.
The International Dairy Foods Association, a lobbying group, wrote Mr. Vilsack Thursday asking him to take action. Dairy farmers would benefit temporarily from higher prices after a year of drought pushed feed prices to record levels. But higher milk prices could hamper U.S. exports, Mr. Wilson said. “Certainly they’d appreciate higher checks for a little while, but I think most of them appreciate that’s not sustainable,” Mr. Wilson said.
Mr. Vilsack said imports to the U.S. could rise as foreign suppliers try to take advantage.
It is probable that many retailers will eat some or most of the increase in order to keep customers from fleeing to lower priced outlets. But they can only do that for so long before it seriously eats into their profits.
Congress will probably get something done early in January so the immediate crisis will be resolved. But some permanent mechanism for figuring dairy price supports must be in place soon for the sake of both farmer and consumer.
How about we just do away with dairy price supports altogether? This is how scummy politicians write laws o they can never be repealed. Mak it “temporary”, and let it revert, by default, to some hideously stupid law.
Just think of all the things that create a “crisis” in Washington that are manufactured by Congress, itself.
Because they never actually repeal anything. How many laws are too many?
I think we went screaming by that level 100 years ago.
We need to scrub the slate clean and start over. Perhaps banning politicians could be a start.
” But some permanent mechanism for figuring dairy price supports must be in place soon for the sake of both farmer and consumer.”
Oh, oh, oh, I know Mistah Kotter. It’s called the free market.
“Lawmakers and federal officials say Congress could still approve legislation blocking the 1949 law, or they could pass a temporary extension to the 2008 farm bill. “We are exploring all options to prevent the 1949 farm bill from taking effect, especially as it relates to dairy policy,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R., Okla.) said.”
There is one Constitutional Amendment that everyone should be able to get behind no matter what their political leaning. I propose the Sunset Amendment; all Acts of Congress enacted into law come with the automatic provision that the law becomes nullified and inoperable after 20 years from the date of first application and is stricken from all legal registers. In this way, we will no longer be dealing with legal overhangs with a vintage dating of 60-80-120 years ago thanks to the fecklessness of Congress to repeal old laws whose usefulness has long since expired.
But, but… the Democrats said things were better, we got this “free” phone for voting for ‘em too…
“But some permanent mechanism for figuring dairy price supports must be in place soon for the sake of both farmer and consumer.”
Today, any “farmer” worthy of being such, has the ability to diversify and manage his productivity to leverage the various markets. So, NO, farmers will not be victimized as some may claim. They may be bruised in the short term but winners in the longer term — if they’re smart.
The “victim” if thats the proper word, will be the consumer soley dependent upon the farmer and processor. For them, I have little compassion as they’ve long taken agri commodities and low prices for granted and have no appreciation for the commodities producers. I say, let them pay, pay, pay and try growing gardens in the street cracks of Broadway and Wilshire Blvd. Maybe, if the masses starved for awhile they’d eventially become less politicized enemies to one another and no doubt, regardless of political persuasion and philosophy would be screaming for the government to step in and provide price support subsidies. Go figger! Stupidity should hurt!