Big Beef Gets A Win In Senate. And Cows Cheer.
Forget politics. Let’s talk about food. Or both.
It turns out that the politics of food has found its way into the big debate over the stimulus package. And it appears that for now, thanks to GOP Senator John Cornyn, Big Beef has scored a win by getting something yanked from the stim bill in the Senate. And this is likely to cheer advocates of food policy reform, not to mention cows.
Let us explain. As it happens, some in the dairy industry are at odds with the beef industry over a critical policy issue: Whether or not to slaughter cows to regulate the price of milk.
First, understand that the recession has created a milk surplus and driven milk prices down. Some in the dairy industry wants to deal with this by having the government buy cattle and “retire” them to reduce the supply of milk. A good explainer is here.
“Retire” means that the cows end up in cans and butcher shops. The beef industry, naturally, opposes this, because it floods the market with beef and drives its price down. That puts the beef industry at odds with some in the dairy industry, and also puts Big Beef in the odd position of opposing a measure that leads to mass cow slaughter. (Food policy reformers don’t like this type of system-gaming because it can mess with the market and lead to overproduction.)
The dairy industry supported an effort to include such a “retirement” in the stimulus package; it would have taken 6.5 billion gallons of milk off the market. But according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, or NCBA, it would have brought more than 300,000 heads of cattle into the beef market. (This apparently wasn’t a serious proposal in the House.)
Big Beef — or the NCBA — opposed this measure. And now they may have gotten their way.
Colin Woodall, a lobbyist for NCBA, tells our reporter, Beth Marlowe, that his group succeeded in getting the measure killed in Senate markup. He says that it was largely Senator Cornyn who made this happen.
So score one for Big Beef. As for those 300,000 cows, they get to keep making milk for awhile longer.
Great reporting: which lobbyist got which Senator to kill a specific measure in a complex bill. This sort of stuff goes under the radar way too often.
yah true Crust. that’s what we’re gonna be trying to do more of here…
open thread is up btw:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/happy-hour-roundup-3/
How about donating the extra milk?
Great news for my dad the beef farmer. I had no idea this was in the bill- pretty sure he didn’t either. Great catch, Greg! I’m printing this out and giving him a copy- though his head may explode to learn that a Republican actually did something that helped him (he’s not a fan). Perhaps, I’ll give you his reaction later.
Okay, well my Dad, the beef farmer, did not have a clue this was even going on. “What a bunch of horsesh**” was his reaction. He new milk prices were bad and had noticed beef prices dropping in the last few days. Mainly, he thought it was a really bad idea and was surprised that he hadn’t heard of it.
A really dumb idea to slaughter that many cattle and flood the market. Why not pay the farmers to dump their milk instead? Helping milk farmers by putting beef farmers on the chopping block- that’s bone-headed. Robbing peter to pay paul, comes to mind.
Of course, donating the milk to the needy is also a great idea. I suggested dumping it b/c I know that’s been done in the past and worked to some degree.
Q. Why does the federal government meddle in the milk business?
A. “A recent USDA study acknowledged that ‘dairy programs raise the retail price’ of milk. The watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste estimates that the programs cost U.S. consumers at least $1.5 billion a year.”
Very true, Neal. It’s a vicious cycle- and one my Dad was all to happy to leave to become a beef farmer.
process the milk into powdered milk and give it to unemployed families, This would cost the government very little and would solve several problems
What’s up? I just wanted to comment that I really appreciate your post.