The House Agriculture Committee met Wednesday to discuss dairy provisions in the Farm Bill. House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-GA) says while the creation of the Dairy Margin Coverage program in the last farm bill has provided beneficial improvements, lawmakers must continue to ensure the dairy industry has a safety net that works.
“This program provides more comprehensive coverage to small and medium-sized farms than any other program before it,” he said. “The Dairy Margin Coverage is extraordinarily important to our dairy farmers. The creation of DMC was an important part of the 2018 Farm Bill and it is vital that we understand if there are ways to further improve this valuable tool so that it is working for farmers and the American people.”
He said the pandemic proved the need for such programs.
“Nothing made the importance of this safety net more apparent than the COVID-19 pandemic. We saw during the early stages of the pandemic how shocks to labor and our supply chain, some of which still persist today, how they impacted the ability of farmers to get their products to market. However, as market balances were disrupted, we were able to provide pandemic market volatility funds through USDA to help our dairy farmers,” he said.
The hearing was one of several farm bill sessions as congress prepares for the 2023 Farm Bill.
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Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.