Milk Producers Convention PT1

The National Milk Producers Federation met recently in Anaheim, California, for the 101st annual convention and discussed a number of issues for the dairy industry.

For one, they discussed new legislation on Capitol Hill. The National Milk Producers Federation Chris Galen says milk producers are ready to see the School Milk Nutrition Act of 2017 move forward.

The bill would allow schools to offer low-fat and fat-free milk, including flavored milk with no more than 150 calories per eight-ounce serving, to participants in the federal school lunch and breakfast programs.

"What are things that happened back in 2011 is that the USDA changed its policy regarding the milk offerings in schools participating in the national school lunch program and they changed it in a way that not only reduce the choices available to students the overall impact has been bad for the participation in the school lunch program now there's new legislation it was just introduced last week called the school milk nutrition after 2017 at basically what it would do is make certain that the USDA follows the dietary guidelines which allow for low-fat flavored milk in schools"

Another piece of legislation the dairy industry is watching closely is the ag guest worker bill that recently passed out of committee in the House of Representatives.