9-21 IAN Dairy Lobbyist

 Ever talked Washington DC lobbyist? Will I have and I will let you in on the conversation in just a minute.

Jerry Slominski is the International Dairy Foods Association senior vice president for legislative affairs and economic policy. Jerry has a highly informed perspective on Capitol Hill discussions related to dairy and the upcoming Farm Bill “ My title is senior vice president, however just think of me and my team as professional lobbyists for the International DairyFoods Association.  I have a small division and I have a couple of lobbyists who work for me and we are the ones who tell members of Congress what the Dairy Foods Association’s positions are.” I am a high-powered congressman, and I ask you to tell me what are the issues?  One of our top issues is there is a program called the Foundation for the Future and we have concerns about some of the characteristics, particularly that part that calls for supply management, sometimes called growth management or supply controls.  This is a proposal to start a new government program that would manipulate milk prices when the margin between feed and milk cost declines and would manipulate milk prices by limiting supply and increasing demand. This is a program that would basically increase the prices of milk domestically but really wouldn’t do the same thing internationally, so when we have higher domestic prices than international prices, then we are going to lose out on exports and as you know, dairy exports the real driver of the industry over the last few years has been.