Washington D.C. (April 15, 2008) - The National Family Farm Coalition delivered to the entire U.S. Senate and House of Representatives a letter outlining the failures of the current Farm Bill to address the coming crisis in the dairy sector. Since 1992, we have lost over half our dairy farmers, with only 60,000 left in existence. Once they are gone, America's food security and access to local, safe, fresh milk will be severely jeopardized. An announced advance price this month of $14.17 per cwt for Class IV milk, down from $20 in November, will be causing mass economic distress for many dairy farmers dealing with rocketing costs of production.

NFFC's letter outlined three glaring deficiencies in the Farm Bill:

- Inadequate Safety Net: The current $9.90 per cwt support price, as well as the $16.94 price floor for the Milk Income Loss Contract program, are completely inadequate as farmers' cost of production, according to the USDA Economic Research Service, is running anywhere from $17 to $27 per cwt.

- Forward Contracting: Forward contracting allows processors to pay below the minimum price to farmers and will only further consolidate the industry.

- Federal Milk Marketing Order Review Commission: We fear a new industry-stacked Commission will only lead to further inequity in the pricing system and an attempt to degrade dairy standards for food products.

NFFC Dairy Subcommittee chairman Paul Rozwadowski said, "The current Farm Bill completely fails our family farmers. Our costs of production are skyrocketing by 100% for everything from fertilizer to fuel. Meanwhile, our prices have gone down by $5 since last September, despite what we hear are strong export markets. Our broken dairy pricing policies and the concentration of our highly-consolidated industry will further worsen with the inclusion of the forward contracting program and the new FMMO Commission. Congress' failure to listen to our real farmers means we may soon find ourselves relying on powdered Chinese milk once all our local farms are put out of business."