Henry Bonilla: “to begin the position of those opposed, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro). Ms.…”

“to begin the position of those opposed, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro). Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the gentleman's amendment and want to say a few words about the work done at the University of Connecticut's Food Marketing Policy Center. It is hardly frivolous. The policy center has an established track record as a research resource for policymakers across the world. It conducts research on a variety of food and agricultural marketing, safety related policy matters, information that contributes to the work that we do to improve our food production, marketing, and safety systems. Let me give you a couple of examples how it has helped us here in the Congress and impacted consumers: In 2003, the Food Marketing Policy Center research on fluid milk pricing in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest uncovered gouging by supermarket chains. After the demise of the Northeast Dairy Compact, farm prices had plummeted, but retail prices in New England only had declined marginally. The center estimated that milk at $3 per gallon retail in New England supermarkets was $1 above its supply cost for nearly 2 years, hurting farmers as much as consumers. Their research is helping us determine new approaches to fluid milk channel pricing.…”