WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 19, 2010 - The 17-member Dairy Industry Advisory Committee appointed by Secretary Tom Vilsack has completed its first meeting, held here April 13 - 15.

Secretary Vilsack charged the members with working together quickly to create recommendations to address critical dairy industry issues, including price volatility and dairy farmer profitability and their impact on the entire dairy industry.

“The bandwidth between the good times and bad times used to be relatively stable,” said Vilsack. “Over the past several years it has become increasingly more dramatic. Range between the highs and the lows is increasing and there is not enough time for a dairy farmer to recover.”

Committee members were selected from all sectors of the dairy industry, including producers and producer organizations, processors and processor organizations, handlers, consumers, academia, retailers, and state agencies involved in organic and non-organic dairy at the local, regional, national and international levels.

Secretary Vilsack, Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Jim Miller spent time with the committee over the course of the three-day meeting.

Committee members examined current USDA programs for the dairy industry and received briefings from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, Risk Management Agency, Office of the Chief Economist, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Farm Service Agency, Foreign Agriculture Service and Economic Research Service. Members also explored current proposals from processors and producers on how to address dairy industry concerns. Public oral comments were received during the meeting and public input provided prior to the meeting was also reviewed.

At the close of the three-day session, committee members expressed their appreciation for the importance Secretary Vilsack had placed on the issue and the support they had received from the Department.

The committee is scheduled to meet here again June 3 - 4.

For more information or to submit a comment to the committee, please visit www.fsa.usda.gov/diac.

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