Tom Quaife, Editor, Dairy Herd Network   |   Updated: January 25, 2012

Dairy farmers were the object lesson in a portion of President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night devoted to government regulation.

“We got rid of one rule from 40 years ago that could have forced some dairy farmers to spend $10,000 a year proving that they could contain a spill, because milk was somehow classified as an oil,” Obama said. “With a rule like that, I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk. (To hear audience response to his "crying over spilled milk" joke, listen to the audio above.)

‘I’m confident a farmer can contain a milk spill without a federal agency looking over his shoulder. But I will not back down from making sure an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two years ago,” he said.

Early last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that oil-spill regulations dating back to the 1970s would not apply to bulk milk tanks. Milk had initially been included because of the butterfat it contains.  

The spilled milk issue was one of several “fictions” about EPA’s intentions that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson outlined at a House Agriculture Committee hearing last year.

Also see “Reaction to Obama’s milk comment udderly amazing.”

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NY  |  January, 25, 2012 at 08:48 AM

Well, so then click on the link and see the myths...what are we supposed to believe? DHN, Farmers and Ranchers Alliance and a hundred others were screaming about these issues from the rooftops for months. Dust will be regulated, milk spills regulated, cows will be taxed on emissions. With this kind of "factual" reporting we may as well all live in North Korea.

Turlock California  |  January, 25, 2012 at 08:50 AM

This shows how disconnected from producers the President is. How he or his Secretary of Agriculture could have thought that the Milk spill regulation comment was going to get him votes is beyound me. Remember the milk lobby including the big cooperatives contritubed over 2 million dollars for dairy. What did they ask for? Does 't sound like they asked for fairness in the pricing of milk for dairy farmer.This is why we need the cost of production factored into the value of raw milk.The pricing system we have today would even take all the money Oprah has over a short period of time.

Oklahoma  |  January, 25, 2012 at 09:10 AM

Man---I am starting to believe if the president was able to give each american $1 million directly (from donated funds not taxpayer dollars--no comments about socialism please) some folks would have a fit and say it was nothing but a liberal, socialist, Muslim plot to raise their taxes and they would probably have a e-mail from someone saying that if you take the money the government wil take your guns away. The line in the speech was a joke folks--and the man was trying to emphasize that he doesn't want to regulate the whole world and is willing to gut dumb regulations. Personally I think if he said the sky was blue you would all call him a liar and say he was wrong just 'cause he said it. No wonder nothing gets done on Capitol hill any more.