The Northeast Dairy Compact is set to expire in little more than a month. But proponents of the controversial inter-state commerce agreement are hopeful they can find a way to extend, and possibly even expand the pact. NHPR’s Dan Gorenstein reports.
The Northeast Dairy Compact is set to expire in little more than a month. But proponents of the controversial inter-state commerce agreement are hopeful they can find a way to extend, and possibly even expand the pact. NHPR’s Dan Gorenstein reports.
Five years ago, Congress created a compact that fixed fluid milk prices in New England in hopes of stabilizing the market and preserving more family farms. and now the agreement is in danger of not being continued by the federal government. And New Hampshire Representative Charlie Bass says, many New England leaders don’t want that to happen.
3:18 we have worked with a number of congressmen from the NE, and have voiced our concerns, not only directly to the speaker, but also to chairman of appropriations committee and the ag committee. I will continue to do that and be as aggressive this year as I have in past years.
Right now, prospects for the pact don’t look great. Even though 25 states have adopted some compact legislation. But critics, of whom there are many in both the House of Representatives and Senate, say the compact is nothing more than a cartel that artificially raises the price of milk. John Fryendlund, with Citizens Against Government Waste dislikes the Northeast compact and shudders at the thought of more inter-state agreements throughout the country.
3:34 We believe it is horrible horrible policy. We think this kind of policy interferes with the marketplace that will have longer term costs, b/c this artificial price will lead to declining sales, surplus production, and then we will have government costs that will grow into the billions of dollars.
Fryenlund says New England consumers have already paid $146 million in higher in milk prices, and he considers that a milk tax.
But Ander Meyer of the Governor’s Council, a group dedicated exclusively to the continuation of the dairy compact, says that kind of misinformation is impeding the compact.
19:06 The opposition is pushing the idea that the compact is a cartel set up to increase prices through a smoky dark room, with farmers deciding how they are going to be paid. The consumers, the processors, the farmers are sitting down together, in a public process. There is no cartel.
Meyer argues consumers have felt no adverse impact. He points to a University of Connecticut study that found the average New England family pays 2 ½ to 4 cents more per gallon for their milk since the compact creation. Any additional price increases were due to consolidation of the market place. Meyer also disputes the accusation that family farms aren’t benefiting. M
6:30 Any farmer in compact has benefited from the compact. Anectodal stories will tell you that farmers are staying in business b/c of compact. Number of farms that have decrease have slowed b/c of the compact. There is tremendous benefit to farms in NE. You ask any farmer out there, they will tell you that the compact has helped keep them in business.
A dairy farmer for 25 years, Stewart Yeaton of Epsom, New Hampshire, has earned about ten thousand extra dollars since the pact. He says it’s not a lot of money, but it helps him sleep easier. On average, farms get 10-15 thousand a year. And Yeaton says all 165 dairies in New Hampshire need the compact.
19:53 If we don’t stand together and let Washington know what wer are going to need. WE are all going to fall. We will all be looking for are markets. As we have seen in the psat, our markets our shrinking b/c the handlers that are buying our products are just getting bigger.
Many believe the prospects for the dairy compact are dim. But John Fryenlund of Citizens Against Government Waste, doesn’t agree.
5:28 I am not one who has bought into the belief that it is dead yet. There is a lot of talk that Senator Jeffords has jeopardized the compact. All it has done is changed the dynamics.
The Northeast Dairy Compact is not in the agriculture bill currently before the House and Senate conference committee, but supporters haven’t given up hope of finding a way to make it law. The compact expires at the end of September.
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