Truck Weight Reform Issue Remains Front And Center By Bob Gray

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1 Northeast Dairy Farmers Cooperatives Agri-Mark, Inc. Dairy Farmers of America Northeast Council St. Albans Cooperative Creamery Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc. NDFC NEWSLETTER Bob Gray, Editor Contact Bob and Mike Here: Phone: , FAX: In the September 18, 2015 edition: Truck Weight Reform Issue Remains Front and Center USDA Provides Great Flexibility on MPP Insurance Premium Payments And Is Likely To Extend Sign Up Period Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement Update The Republican Presidential Debates And Immigration Reform Double Trouble The Undocumented Workforce: Where Its At NMPF Requests An MPP Sign Up Extension House Judiciary Committee Bottles Up Immigration Reform McDonald Uses Real Butter? FDA Releases Final Rule On Preventive Controls for Food For Animals USDA Awards $100 Million In Ethanol Grants EPA Solicits Public Comment On National Enforcement Initiatives MARCELLUS SHALE Truck Weight Reform Issue Remains Front And Center The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee postponed its consideration of a long term Highway Bill until some time in October. No firm date has been set. There will be two important amendments that will be offered to the Highway Bill that, if accepted, will make a huge difference to the Northeast dairy industry in terms of minimizing food safety risks, costs and efficiency in hauling fluid milk products on a daily basis. One will be offered by Congressman Ribble (R-WI) and the other will be offered by Congressman Hanna (R-NY). Both amendments are important. Enclosed is an explanation of what the two amendments would accomplish. The Dairy Industry Fully Supports the Ribble Compromise Amendment: Ø Congressman Ribble s amendment allows states to increase truck weights from 80,000 pounds gross weight to 91,000 pounds with the addition of a sixth axle, without increasing the truck size. This will make it safer and more efficient to move finished dairy products from the processing plants and warehouses to consumer markets. 1. Final packaged dairy products will be regulated under FDA s Sanitary Transportation Rule, which should be finalized in Spring, The Hanna amendment recognizes that bulk milk hauling in the northeast has unique food safety and divisibility challenges: 1. Food safety requirements ensure that milk is picked up from farms with practices that minimize and prevent food safety risks. FDA also has guidelines on bulk transport of milk for food defense purposes that suggest that a milk hauler should completely offload all milk at a processing facility and then be washed at that facility before it goes out to pick up more milk. If a milk hauler has split loads in order to meet weight constraints, it would require off- loading at two different facilities.

2 2. The Department of Homeland Security has funded a study on tracking and sealing of milk trucks between the farm and plant, to establish criteria to properly protect food safety and discourage split loads. 3. This application of the current law exemption is needed to safely transport milk from farm bulk tank trucks that in some states are not filled to capacity because of truck weight limits, or are required to open sealed tanks to remove milk between state lines. Why moving milk from farm to plant needs to have the definition changed from a divisible to a non- divisible load: 1. Any plant or transfer station that receives/transfers milk from a tanker must be an Interstate Milk Shippers (IMS)- licensed facility and comply with PMO protocols. There is also a nationwide tanker seal program that further ensures milk safety and security 2. Farm bulk tanks have to be emptied and cleaned within a 48 to 60 hour period. 3. Once a hauler starts to assemble a load of milk he cannot have more than two hours between farm stops. 4. Bulk milk trucks have to be cleaned by regulation every 72 hours. 5. Milk production at the farm level varies due to seasonal adjustments and herd size. The amendment simply includes milk (and other related bulk fluid dairy products) under the current law non- divisible exemption in Section 127(a) of Title 23, United States code. Ø See the language below and the operative portion of the language is in bold print. Provided, That such overall gross weight may not exceed eighty thousand pounds, including all enforcement tolerances except for vehicles using Interstate Route 29 between Sioux City, Iowa, and the border between Iowa and South Dakota or vehicles using Interstate Route 129 between Iowa and Nebraska, and except for those vehicles and loads which cannot be easily dismantled or divided and which have been issued special permits in accordance with applicable State laws, or the corresponding maximum weights permitted for vehicles using the public highways of such State under laws or regulations established by appropriate State authority in effect on July 1, If approved, the Hanna amendment would allow bulk milk trucks to carry 97,000 pounds gross weight on interstate highways. USDA Provides Great Flexibility on MPP Insurance Premium Payments And Is Likely To Extend Sign Up Period This week USDA s Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced some important changes in making MPP insurance payments for Dairy producers will have until September 30, 2016 to pay 100% of their MPP insurance premium as opposed to the current rules which require 25% to be paid by February 1 st, 2016 and the remaining balance by June. The $100 administrative fee for the $4.00 basic margin protection program has to be paid by the end of the sign up period. FSA will also allow dairy producers to pay for their insurance premiums through milk check deductions with their dairy cooperatives. Enclosed below is the official USDA/FSA announcement on the premium payment schedule. The annual coverage election period for the 2016 coverage year ends on September 30, If you have not already done so, you are required to make an annual coverage election for 2016 and to pay the $100 annual administrative fee to your County FSA Office by September 30, Please note that any unpaid premium balance for 2015 must be paid in full by September 30, 2015, for you to remain eligible for buy-up coverage for 2016.

3 WHAT S NEW FOR percent of your premium is due September 30, 2016, and you are no longer required to make a 25 percent premium payment by February 1, 2016 and pay the remaining balance by June Your milk marketing company may remit your premium on your behalf to your county office if you work out an agreement with your milk marketing company. Premium payments may be submitted to your county office at any time prior to September 30, WHAT YOU NEED TO DO If you have already completed a coverage election for 2016,no further action is necessary. You must pay your premium by September 30, 2016, if you selected buy-up coverage. If you have not made an election, please complete an MPP-Dairy Contract and Annual Coverage Election Form CCC-782 available from your local county office, or download the form from the following site: You may evaluate your coverage election options using the MPP-Dairy decision tool at visit your FSA county office. WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON T MAKE A TIMELY ELECTION AND FAIL TO PAY YOUR ADMINISTRATIVE FEE? Failure to timely make a coverage election on form CCC-782 will result in no coverage for However, you remain legally obligated to pay the $100 administrative fee. Cat-level coverage may be reinstated if you pay your administrative fee late. Northeast Congressional offices have asked FSA to extend the MPP sign up period for 2016 which now ends on September 30 th to later this fall. An announcement will be made soon on either a 30 day extension until the end of October or a 60 day extension to the end of November. This extension will give dairy producers more time to project farm milk prices in Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement Update The negotiations on the TPP continue. So far Canada has not budged on granting U.S. dairy products more access to their markets. Their quota system remains the hallmark of their dairy industry and it will be very difficult for them to agree to increased U.S. access. It is my understanding that there has been some progress made with Japan on greater access, particularly on cheese and whey products. At the same time, our dairy industry is concerned and rightly so that if New Zealand gets greater market access for importing their dairy products into the U.S. and we get very little or no access to Japan or Canada, it leaves us at a decided disadvantage. The timetable for completing the final TPP negotiations is not clear. The Canadian elections are next month so we are looking at a potential wrap up date of November or December at the earliest. The Republican Presidential Debates And Immigration Reform As I watched the Republican Presidential debate last night there was a great deal of discussion on immigration reform. Most of it revolved around border security. However, one key snippet of hope came from candidate Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who is running for President. He correctly pointed out the need for immigrant workers in the agriculture sector and that we need a program to retain the current ag immigration workforce. Right on, Dr. Carson!

4 Maggie McHugh has an excellent article in today s newsletter on the heavy concentration of immigrant workers in the ag sector. I would strongly recommend that you read it. Our need for agriculture immigration reforms are very straight forward. I have posted them in a previous newsletter but I think it is important to list them again. Current full time workforce: Ø Unauthorized agriculture workers who reside in the U.S. should be able to apply for an earned adjustment of status option. Ø It would require a background check as well as other requirements before a work visa would be issued. Ø Once approved these workers would have a future obligation to work for a number of days annually in agriculture for several years. Ø Upon completion of their future work obligation in agriculture these workers could apply for extension of the work visa. Ø Visa employees could move from employer to employer without any contractual commitment. Ø At the same time, visa employees could contract with an employer for a fixed period of time in order to provide both the employer and employee with increased stability in the work force. Ø A new Agricultural Workers Visa Program would be established for future immigrant workers. Seasonal Worker Program: Ø The current H-2A program is too rigid in its administration and regulatory requirements to effectively provide workers in a timely manner to harvest fruit, vegetables and other crops. Ø The H-2A program needs to be eliminated and a new temporary and seasonal worker program established. Ø The new program needs to be structured in a manner that it will be administratively workable for employers seeking temporary and seasonal help to avoid delays and costly recruitment requirements. Ø Seasonal workers would also be able to move from job to job during the harvest season or be under contract to remain with the employer or for a specified period of time during the harvest season. Double Trouble The Ace of Heroic Canines By Willow and Bonnie Gray Bonnie and I nominate a pit bull yes, you heard us right! for our article this week. His name is Ace and he lives in Indiana. He is a very special canine to begin with as he helps 13 year old Nick, a boy who was born deaf. Nick now has a cochlear device that helps him hear but he has to take the device off when he sleeps. Nick was alone in the house taking a nap one day and of course he wasn t wearing his hearing device. It was Ace who heard the smoke alarm go off and went into Nick s room to wake him up by licking his face. Nick was able to not only wake up in time to leave, he was also able to grab the cochlear, his cell phone and his dog. There is just about nothing left of the house but Ace saved Nick and the family cat, Pixie. The fire investigators think the cause was electrical. Nick s mom made a very good point. Pit bulls get bad reps, he loves his family. If it wasn t for him, I could have lost my little boy. Ace gets our beagle high five for his heroism!

5 The Undocumented Workforce: Where It s At By Maggie McHugh There is some very interesting data coming out of the Pew Research Center on unauthorized working immigrants that caught our attention. Particular interest is paid to certain industries and occupations, so first, lets do a little clarification. Occupation is the kind of work that people do on the job. Industry is the kind of business conducted by an employing organization. It s important to take a little care here. A specific industry may employ people in many different occupations. Pew also used the Current Population Survey, which surveys households in mid-march and asks among other things who is working where, doing what. Keep that in mind when reading this sort of data. The graphic included in this article shows a map of the U.S., Alaska and Hawaii with the different industries signified by color. Agriculture is shown in green and there is so much of it on the map of the Lower 48 plus Alaska that it almost looks like a St. Patrick s Day celebration. Farming, fishing and forestry have 26% of unauthorized immigrant workers as of 2012 (no surprise to readers of this newsletter!) with cleaning and maintenance at 17%. This is followed closely by construction at 14%, food service behind that at 11%, production and repair at 9% and transportation at 7%. The unauthorized share of the entire work force peaked at 5.4% in 2007 at the dawn of the Great Recession. The size of this labor force did not change from 2007 to Only the make-up moved slightly. There are a bit fewer unauthorized workers in the blue-collar jobs and a tad more in white-collar jobs. As you will note, though, there is still a solid majority in low-skilled occupations such as construction and production, more so than U.S. born workers. The portion of management or professional jobs filled by unauthorized workers is at 13% whereas the rate of U.S. born workers in those jobs stands at 36%. States shown in white on the map have less than 5,000 undocumented workers.

6 NMPF Requests An MPP Sign Up Extension The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) requested that USDA extend the sign-up period for next year s MPP program to give producers more time to make decisions on 2016 coverage. They requested that the sign-up be extended until November 30, The current deadline for MPP sign-up for 2016 is just over two weeks away. While the NMPF is hopeful that USDA will grant their request to extend the sign-up period, at this time they have no indication what action may be taken. NMPF s rationale for the extension is that farmers are currently busy harvesting their crops, making crop marketing decisions, and potentially completing ARC/PLC enrollment. Per the NMPF, extending the deadline an additional two months would allow farmers more time to finalize these grain-marketing decisions and devote necessary attention to next year s market outlook. Stay tuned. House Judiciary Committee Bottles Up Immigration Reform The Hill Newspaper reported on Tuesday that the House Judiciary Committee is bottling up immigration reform under Chairman Goodlatte, who stated, tackling a complete overhaul of the broken immigration system would result in too many unintended consequences. Chairman Goodlatte calls demands for a complete overhaul of the system, including a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, a wrongheaded approach. He s pursued a step-by-step approach, where lawmakers first deal with immigration enforcement, then tackle legal immigration, such as an agricultural guest-worker program. To date, four enforcement bills cleared the Judiciary Committee this year, including legislation focusing on mandatory electronic verification for employers, but those bills so far have been ignored by the GOP leadership. McDonald Uses Real Butter? As you may have noticed, McDonald s is making a number of major changes to its menu, the most recent is that they are now using real, actual butter to cook breakfast items on the grill and to spread on toasted items like English muffins, biscuits, and bagels. A number of locations across the country have already started using the dairy product. This is great news for our butter producers! FDA Releases Final Rule On Preventive Controls For Food For Animals On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released the final rule on Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals. The rule takes effect in November with compliance dates varying based on size; however, implementation periods range several years for different facilities. These regulations will, for the first time, establish requirements for the current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) for food for animals. In addition, they are adding requirements for certain domestic and foreign animal food facilities to establish and implement hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for food for animals. They are taking this action to provide greater assurance that animal food is safe and will not cause illness or injury to humans and animals and to implement new statutory provisions in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The rule is intended to build an animal food safety system for the future that makes modern science and risk-based preventive controls the norm across all sectors of the animal food system. USDA Awards $100 Million In Ethanol Grants USDA announced that twenty-one states will share about $100 million in grants to add infrastructure needed to provide higher blends of ethanol in gasoline at thousands of pumps across nation. The grants will support 4,880 pumps at more than 1,400 fueling stations, mostly for E15 blends (15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline).

7 EPA Solicits Public Comment On National Enforcement Initiatives The EPA is soliciting public comment and recommendations on national enforcement initiatives (NEI) for fiscal years EPA selects these initiatives every three years to focus federal resources on the most important environmental problems where noncompliance is a significant contributing factor and where they believe federal enforcement attention can make a difference. EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance is collecting comment on which of the current national enforcement initiatives should continue, be expanded or returned to the standard enforcement program. Current initiatives may be carried forward, refined or concluded for the FY cycle. Also, EPA is seeking comment on the list of potential NEIs being considered for the FY national enforcement cycle. The current FY national enforcement initiatives, which can be extended, are reducing air pollution from the largest sources; cutting toxic air pollution; assuring energy extraction and production activities comply with environmental laws; reducing pollution from mineral processing operations; keeping raw sewage and contaminated storm water out of our Nation's waters; and preventing animal waste from contaminating surface and ground water. Finally, EPA will consider all public comments in determining whether and to what extent to continue or expand an initiative or to select a new one, but will not respond to the comments received. Final selection will be incorporated into the EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance FY 2017 National Program Manager Guidance Addendum that provides national program direction for all EPA regional offices. Information in support of this Notice of Public Comment is available via the Internet at: MARCELLUS SHALE UPDATE Hydraulic Fracturing Boom Expected To Trigger More Litigation Tuesday s Bloomberg News Report indicated that legal battles over natural gas and petroleum hydraulic fracturing are on the rise, as gas and petroleum producers and environmentalists spar over state preemption of local hydraulic fracturing bans as well as federal rulemaking. Additionally, individuals living near hydraulic fracturing operations and other private parties continue to file tort claims alleging personal injury, property damage, workplace exposure and product liability. Finally, property owners have filed a variety of class actions, alleging hydraulic fracturing has contaminated well water, caused earthquakes and contaminated air, but a groundswell of legal actions have yet to materialize. Shale Insight 2015 On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I attended the Shale Insight 2015 Conference held in Philadelphia, which highlighted the important discussions on shale development, featuring some of the prominent industry and government leaders. The conference allowed attendees, along with myself, to network with the industry executives and leaders through two days of technical and public affairs insight sessions, major keynote addresses, and a exhibit hall featuring all the major shale players.