On Aug. 27, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Karen Ross announced that the CDFA would cease to pursue bill AB 2730, a proposal to adapt California’s dairy processing system that had been introduced in the California State Senate.
Ross released a statement that read:
“Let me begin by thanking all of you who have spent many, many hours considering ways in which we can reform the industry in a positive and collaborative way. I established the Dairy Future Task Force to see if we could find commonality amongst two sides that have been separated for quite some time. Through this process, a framework came together that would have meant substantial financial relief for producers and flexibility to processors that would have benefited the whole industry.
"While the timing was not ideal, I was compelled to see if we could get something done this year. Since the August 13th Task Force meeting, a tremendous amount of progress has been made, but not enough. So we will not be pursuing reform legislation this year.”
A few days before the CDFA statement was released, California Dairy Campaign (CDC) President Joe Augusto had called upon members of the California State Legislature to vote against AB 2730, saying that its passage would lead to greater loss of dairies statewide.
“Few have seen the final language of CDFA Secretary Ross’s bill, AB 2730, and that is by design,” CDC President Joe Augusto explained in a news release.
“Secretary Ross is waiting until the final days of the California State Legislative Session to introduce a bill that would eliminate milk pricing regulations that dairy producers rely upon as a lifeline when prices drop,” he added.
“When this issue was discussed and debated years ago, a CDFA study concluded that deregulation as called for in AB 2730 would shift virtually all risk to producers and it is just shameful that years later she is attempting to gut our minimum pricing laws in such an underhanded way.”
AB 2730 would have eliminated minimum pricing and pooling regulations on Class 4 milk, which makes up approximately 80 percent of milk produced in the state.
The bill was the latest development in the California dairy industry's long-running debate about the way its Class 4a/4b milk is regulated.
At the heart of the debate is the gap between California’s Class 4b price and the Federal Order Class III price. ( See a Milk Producers Council graph detailing the price gap . PDF, 237 KB)
Over the past several years, producer organizations have tried to close that gap by filing numerous hearing requests, taking legal action and staging protests and rallies.
In addition, a potential Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) forCalifornia is being explored. The USDA updated a question-and-answer document in June of this year, addressing the status of the California FMMO. PD
—Summarized by PD staff from cited sources
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