Ron Kind: “as the gentleman from Wisconsin knows very well, this is June Dairy Month back in Wisconsin. We have got 72 dairy…”

“as the gentleman from Wisconsin knows very well, this is June Dairy Month back in Wisconsin. We have got 72 dairy breakfasts going on. Twenty-four thousand family farms are celebrating June Dairy Month right now. Since 1980 alone, because of this antiquated Depression-era Federal milk marketing order system, we have suffered half, half of the family farms that have gone out of business in the last 18 years. Roughly five or six family farms a day are going out of business because of this price differential that is pitting region against region. This is a golden opportunity for this Congress to finally come together, bring the competing regions together, finally hammer out one coherent national dairy policy that will get rid of these trade barriers that are now existing from region to region and start positioning our dairy producers for the 21st century so we can compete internationally. Rather than subsidizing inefficient dairy operations at home, we should be looking beyond our borders in how we can gain access to these opening markets overseas. We are not going to do that as long as we perpetuate this discriminatory form of dairy policy that works by and large to the disadvantage of farmers in Wisconsin. I have got 9,000 of those family farms in my district alone. Eau Claire, the city, has been the epicenter of this discriminatory policy. That is what has to change.”