February 8, 2001
Jaime Castaneda
Vice President
National Milk Producers Federation
2101 Wilson Blvd. - Suite 400
Arlington,
VA 22182
Dear Mr. Castaneda:
Thank you for answering my
letter. I must tell you that I find your response condescending and
downright trite.
Rather than answer my questions in a
forthright and timely manner, you responded with boilerplate free trade
propaganda straight out of the USTR's office. Further, you resorted to a
gratuitous ad hominem attack on one of the true friends of the dairy
farmer, Tom May of Trugman-Nash, Inc. Your letter confirms what I have
long feared - you and others at National Milk seem to be anxious to make the
same mistakes in the upcoming round of trade talks that your organization made
in the Uruguay Round.
I want you to know that we WIFE members
are all very proud of our involvement in the Dairy Trade Coalition.
Moreover, as Dick Groves' editorial (copy attached) in
The Cheese Reporter
indicates, the Dairy Trade Coalition (DTC) is the only organization that has
been consistently right on international trade. Dairy farmers need the DTC
and, thanks to your pompous reply, I now seriously question the value of National
Milk.
You have further confirmed that NMPF
continues to be out of step and out of touch with grassroots dairy farmers on
trade issues. I now understand why so many producers across the nation
see NMPF behaving as a processor group like the International Dairy Foods
Association (IDFA) rather than as a producer organization. It is rather
hypocritical of you to question the motives of the DTC given that you represent
the interests of dairy cooperatives as processing entities more concerned about
keeping their plants full of cheap milk than they are about the welfare of their
farmer-owners.
Many farmers find NMPF's positions
during the Uruguay Round, NAFTA and now the WTO as hard to distinguish from
those of the IDFA and members of the Cairns Group. Even your position on
Milk Protein Concentrate and natural cheese standards is suspect based on
statements that your Vice President Tom Balmer made at a meeting sponsored by
the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research in the fall of 1998 when
he stated that NMPF basically supports the National Cheese Institute proposal to
change the identity of natural cheese.
I'll point out some facts for you about
National Milk which you may want to digest before you go around attacking
hard-working farm women. First, National Milk was the only
organization representing dairy farmers during the disastrous Uruguay Round
negotiations which cut our DEIP program, dropped tariff rates, increased foreign
access, and eliminated Section 22 protections. And what did you get in
return for basically selling out the interests of American dairy farmers?
I'll tell you what we got in return - we got "Nothing" but misguided,
fatuous so-called trade experts such as yourself as a legacy to contend with on
a day to day basis. Shame on you!
Second, it was National Milk who
was on watch when Section 22 was given away. Section 22 allowed the U.S.
to put dairy products under quota if their imports interfered with the price
support system. If you hadn't given it away, we would now have a mechanism
for putting a quota on Milk Protein Concentrates. Instead, you are trying
to come up with solutions that trade experts I have talked to say do not fit the
problem your organization helped create. Shame on you!
And yet you bleat the same foolish
policy line. Why is National Milk calling for increased import access for
dairy products to the U.S. coupled with lower duty rates? Why is this good
for the dairy farmers who own your member organization?
I was privileged to be present at the
Dairy Trade Coalition's dairy forum in Madison on September 25, 2000.
Present was a majority of the Midwest agricultural press corps. All
comments by the press were antagonistic to the USDA point of view (espoused by
NMPF) that more liberalized trade would aid dairy farmer income. It did
not in the Uruguay Round and it will not in the next round.
Your fundamental mistake, and a mistake
made by many dairy farmers, is in thinking that the goal of the importer is
necessarily different from the goal of the American dairy farmer. You
think there is a conflict of interest with the DTC's membership. I'll tell
you where the conflict is - it's with organizations like National Milk which are
more concerned about representing the interest of processors than dairy farmers.
Based on my eight years of experience
working with Tom May, you couldn't be more wrong. Trugman-Nash, Inc. the
importer member of the Dairy Trade Coalition wants exactly what we dairy farmers
want - fair prices and a stable market. I sell raw milk and Trugman-Nash
sells imported cheese, but when markets are like they are now we both
suffer. I think Tom May understands the needs of dairy farmers a lot
better than the staff at NMPF and U.S. Dairy Export Council. NMPF and
USDEC seem to have forgotten that dairy farmers make their existence
possible. Shame on you!
Many years ago Trugman-Nash recognized
the terrible potential of trade agreements to destroy dairy product prices and
dairy farm income. They reached out to members of the domestic
industry. WIFE responded and joined the DTC. In fact, National Milk
was a member of the Dairy Trade Coalition for a bit until it succumbed to
pressure from your group's dominant processor interests. Thanks to the
efforts of the DTC dairy farmers are now getting a true picture of the nature of
international trade. I don't understand why you resent this. Aren't
we all supposed to be working for better prices for farmers?
I also don't understand why you
pooh-pooh the various reports coming out of Canada and Europe threatening our
important farm programs. Many of these programs are vital to our staying
in business as dairy producers. You say "We are inclined to ignore
self-serving publications from competitive countries. However, we are
disturbed when those documents are used to deceive U.S. dairy farmers.
Canadian dairy representatives-not government officials-have indicated that they
will challenge a series of U.S. programs." This seems pretty silly as
National Milk is not a government organization and heaven knows it puts out
plenty of documents. Are your documents, like the one on
MPC,
self-serving? I think what bothers you about these publications is that
they clearly establish that "the emperor has no clothes"; that is, you
and National Milk have not a leg to stand on.
And, I am also disturbed that you don't
take the threat from other countries seriously. You must be aware that
your own USDA has said in a recent Economics Research Service report that
programs like disaster relief influence farm production. The implication
is that this makes them trade distorting. But National Milk goes along
with its head in the sand as it did during the Uruguay Round and continues to
ignore valid points of view.
The Dairy Trade Coalition wasn't in
Geneva for the Uruguay Round but it will be wherever the next round is
negotiated. As the only organization that truly understands the ups and
downs of international dairy trade, farmers throughout the U.S. better hope that
our counsel will be heeded.
And we won't be alone. I am
pleased to announce the formation of the Dairy Trade Advisory Council. Already,
public officials from the Northeast and Midwest have joined and soon there will
be others. The public officials will make an excellent resource for the
DTC.
It is regrettable that you and NMPF
would prefer to tilt at windmills and cast aspersions on our group rather than
do what is necessary to forge a trade policy which will actually help rather
than harm family farms in the U.S. Your past record on trade has been a
failure and your present position of calling for increased imports at lower duty
rates does a disservice to dairy farmers throughout the country. Because
you know you can't debate the DTC due to the weakness of your position, you
instead try to cast doubts on our members. It goes to show how
intellectually bankrupt NMPF has become. Shame on you!
Finally, the real irony here is the
fact that the major funding source for both the NMPF and USDEC are dairy
producer dollars. I suggest you start recognizing what side your bread is
buttered on and for a change start representing the true interests of people who
milk cows for a living. If anyone is the suspect, it is you and National
Milk.
Sincerely,
Ruth Laribee
Route 1 East Road
Box 263
Lowville, New York 13367
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