USDA Proposes Milk Order Changes

WASHINGTON - Jan 10/05 - SNS - The USDA wants to amend the Fluid Milk Promotion Order to "provide more equitable representation on the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board," it says.

The proposed amendment would modify terms of membership qualification for board members so that any change in a fluid milk processor member's employer or change in ownership of the fluid milk processor who the member represents would disqualify that member. Members would be allowed to remain on the board for up to six months until a successor is appointed. In addition, a public member of the board who changes employment or ceases to continue in the same business would also be disqualified from membership.

The National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Program is funded by a mandatory 20-cent per hundredweight (100 pound) assessment on milk processed into fluid milk products and marketed commercially in consumer-type packages in the contiguous 48 States and the District of Columbia. Processors who distribute less than 3,000,000 pounds of fluid milk products per month, excluding fluid milk products delivered to the place of residence of a consumer, are exempted from paying the assessment.

Details of the proposed changes will be published as a proposed rule in the Jan. 12 Federal Register. Comments, postmarked no later than Feb. 11, may be sent to Dairy Programs, AMS, USDA, 1400 Independence Ave., Stop 0233 – Room 2958-S, Washington, D.C. 20250-0233.