Angie Craig: “Idaho recently became the fourth largest dairy producer in the Nation, and coupled with that new status are our inherent…”

“Idaho recently became the fourth largest dairy producer in the Nation, and coupled with that new status are our inherent growing pains. Over the past 15 years, Idaho's expansion in the dairy industry has been swift. So has the growth of the State's population. The two have come in conflict with each other over the need for Idaho's dairy industry to be good players in the environmental arena. That is a critical issue, and they have, in most instances, been successful in working out their problems. Even with the increased pressure of urban encroachment and stringent environmental regulations--and our State has not turned its back on this issue--producers in my State continue to surprise me in their work, in their innovation, and the progressive thinking as it relates to resolving the environmental problems that I suggested are inherent with large concentrated herd and dairy development that is on going. Idaho's industry realized a few years ago that it was vital they work collectively to support research to find new technologies and methods to mitigate the impact of the operations on the environment. So in 2004, Idaho dairy producers voted to assess themselves an extra half cent per hundredweight to fund environmental research. In other words, they didn't ask the country to do it, they didn't ask the Nation to do it, they did it themselves.…”