USDA Amends Milk Board Requirements

WASHINGTON - Mar 24.05 - SNS -- The USDA is amending the terms of membership of the Fluid Milk Promotion Order to "provide more equitable representation on the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board."

Under the amendment, any change in a fluid milk processor board member's employer or change in ownership of the fluid milk processor who the board member represents would disqualify that member.

The member would be allowed to remain on the board for up to six months or until a successor was appointed. A similar process also would apply to a public member of the board who changes employment or ceases to continue in the same business.

The National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Program is funded by a mandatory 20-cent per hundredweight (100 pounds) 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.