You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

Dairy Farmers to Be Compensated for Losses From Pandemic-Related Price Volatility Under the USDA's new Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program, qualified dairy farmers will be reimbursed for 80 percent of the revenue difference per month based on an annual production of up to 5 million pounds of milk marketed and on fluid milk sales from July through December 2020.

By The Epoch Times

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Dairy farmers who sold their products at abnormally low prices due to pandemic-related market volatility will be eligible for compensation under a $350 million federal program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA announced details of the Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program in an Aug. 19 press release, with the scheme designed to help smaller farmers whose incomes took a hit when milk markets and prices were distorted by the USDA's big cheese purchases last year for its food box program.

Milk prices plunged in March and April of 2020 as schools, restaurants, and hotels were shuttered due to the outbreak. Cheese prices skyrocketed starting in May, however, after the USDA launched its food box program that was meant to help farmers and others in the food industry by funding deliveries of food directly to needy families.

Yet many producers failed to benefit from the booming cheese prices due in part to a change in pricing rules under the federal milk marketing system, with the American Farm Bureau Federation estimating that dairy farmers across the United States suffered $3 billion in foregone income.

Under the USDA's new Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program, qualified dairy farmers will be reimbursed for 80 percent of the revenue difference per month based on an annual production of up to 5 million pounds of milk marketed and on fluid milk sales from July through December 2020. The agency said the payment rate will vary by region based on the actual losses on pooled milk that were driven by price volatility.

"Family dairy farmers have been battered by the pandemic, trade issues, and unpredictable weather and are the life-blood of many rural communities throughout Vermont, the Northeast, and many other regions," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.

The agency will make the payments to farmers through independent handlers and cooperatives.

"This targeted assistance is the first step in USDA's comprehensive approach that will total over $2 billion to help the dairy industry recover from the pandemic and be more resilient to future challenges for generations to come," Vilsack added.

The market volatility assistance program is part of $6 billion in pandemic assistance that the USDA announced in March. Other pandemic-related programs to dairy farmers include $400 million for a new Dairy Donation Program to address food insecurity and mitigate food waste and $580 million for Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage for small and medium farms.

National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) CEO Jim Mulhern praised the USDA's actions on the donation program and the margin coverage scheme but said the market volatility compensation program falls short.

"The government's COVID-19 response created unprecedented price volatility in milk and dairy-product markets that produced disorderly fluid milk marketing conditions that so far have cost dairy farmers nationwide more than $750 million from what they would have been paid under the previous system," Mulhern said in a statement, referring to the impact of changes introduced by the 2018 Farm Bill.

Calling the USDA's announcement "an initial step" in the effort to help producers recoup as much of their losses as possible, Mulhern said it "unfortunately falls significantly short of meeting the needs of dairy farmers nationwide."

He said that "arbitrary low limits on covered milk production volume mean many family dairy farmers will only receive a portion of the losses they incurred on their production last year," adding that, "these losses were felt deeply by producers of all sizes, in all regions of the country, embodying a disaster in the truest sense of the word."

Mulhern said the federation would lobby Congress for additional funding to close the gap.

By Tom Ozimek

Tom Ozimek has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education. The best writing advice he's ever heard is from Roy Peter Clark: 'Hit your target' and 'leave the best for last.'

The Epoch Times, founded in 2000, is headquartered in Manhattan, New York, with a mission to provide independent and accurate information free of political bias or corporate influence. The organization was established in response to censorship within China and a lack of global awareness regarding the Chinese regime's repression of the spiritual practice Falun Gong.

The Epoch Times is a widely read newspaper that is distributed in 33 countries and is available in 21 languages. The publication has been critical in providing balanced and detailed reporting on major global events such as the 2003 SARS pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis. Notably, the organization has played a key role in exposing corruption inside China.

Aside from its human rights coverage, The Epoch Times has made significant contributions in a variety of fields. It has received praise for its in-depth analysis and expert perspectives on business, the economy and U.S. politics. The newspaper has also received praise for its broad coverage of these topics.

A series of editorials titled "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" appeared in The Epoch Times in 2004. It asserts that freedom and prosperity in China can only be achieved by eliminating the Communist Party, which violated China's cultural and spiritual values. In addition, the organization led the Tuidang movement, which resulted in over 400 million Chinese citizens quitting the Communist Party. In spite of this, 90% of websites referring to the "Nine Commentaries" were blocked by the Chinese regime.

The Epoch Times has been at the forefront of investigating high-level corruption cases within the Chinese regime, with its reporters taking significant risks to uncover these stories. The organization has received several awards for its investigative journalism.

The organization has received several awards for its investigative journalism. For more, visit www.theepochtimes.com.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Growing a Business

To Achieve Sustainable Success, You Need to Stop Focusing on Disruption. Here's Why — and What You Must Focus on Instead.

Instead of zeroing in solely on disruptive innovation, embrace a pragmatic approach to innovation, recognizing and leveraging the potential within ongoing industry shifts.

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Says This CEO Is the 'Taylor Swift' of Tech

Meta's CEO posed with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Instagram Wednesday.

Real Estate

3 Emerging Trends Shaping the Future of Real Estate

These three innovations are reshaping the real estate industry — discover tips for effectively covering these trends.

Leadership

What We Have to Gain By Talking About Grief and Loss At Work

I lost my husband to cancer during Covid — here's how it changed how I lead at work.

Side Hustle

This Mom Started a Side Hustle After a 'Shocking' Realization in the Toy Aisle. Her Product Was in Macy's Within the Year — Seeing Nearly $350,000 in Sales.

Elenor Mak, now founder of Jilly Bing, didn't plan to start a business — but the search for a doll that looked like her daughter inspired her to do just that.

Fundraising

Avoid These 9 Pitch Deck Mistakes When Asking Others For Money

Crafting an efficient pitch deck requires serious effort, but at least it's not wandering in the dark since certain rules are shaped by decades of relationships between startups and investors.