Posts for Category: Farm Bill

U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), Ranking Member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, released a Farm Bill framework reflecting the priorities of Senate Republicans. The Senate Republicans’ framework includes several IDFA priorities, namely the outline for a SNAP Dairy Nutrition Incentives Program, or DNIP, which expands on the SNAP Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives (HFMI) program to include all varieties of milk, as well as cheese and yogurt and cultured products.

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee today approved its version of a 2024 Farm Bill. Michael Dykes, D.V.M., president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), released the following statement on the bill. “IDFA was pleased to see the House Agriculture Committee’s 2024 Farm Bill expand the SNAP Healthy Fluid Milk Incentive (HFMI) to include the full suite of nutritious milk options. Congress created the SNAP HFMI pilot program in the 2018 Farm Bill to test the most effective ways of incentivizing SNAP participants purchase of healthy fluid milk.

The continuing resolution passed this week includes an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill that will allow important dairy-related programs to continue to operate until September 30, 2024. The Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives Projects—a dairy nutrition incentive program for SNAP participants—will be eligible to receive additional appropriations to continue its significant expansion to reach more communities across the country in 2024. In addition, the Farm Bill extension permits USDA to restart the Dairy Forward Pricing Program as soon as the legislation is signed into law by the President, avoiding the need for a time-consuming rulemaking process similar to the one that was required to ‘restart’ the program after it lapsed in 2018.

The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) highlights that 90% of Americans do not consume enough milk and other nutritious dairy products.Bipartisan legislation introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate seeks to address this significant gap by increasing access to nutritious dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurt and other cultured dairy products among participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

While dairy products are repeatedly recommended by the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) as a core component of a healthy eating pattern, the DGA also highlights that 90% of Americans do not consume enough milk and other nutritious dairy products.New legislation introduced today in the U.S. Senate seeks to address this significant gap by increasing access to nutritious dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt among participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Michael Dykes, D.V.M., president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), praised today’s testimony from Mike Durkin, president and CEO of Leprino Foods Company, in front of the House Agriculture Committee. The hearing, “A 2022 Review of the Farm Bill: Dairy Provisions,” featured Durkin alongside other voices in the dairy sector and the federal government, as the House Committee examines strengths and weaknesses in current Farm Bill dairy provisions and other federal policy impacting the dairy industry’s producers, processors, and marketers.