Dairy is an essential element, and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack celebrated the fact that we now have hit a historical milestone by reaching the highest dairy consumption in the U.S. USDA recently announced that total domestic dairy consumption reached 667 lbs. per person, resulting in a 16 lb. increase above pre pandemic levels. Earlier this week Vilsack spoke with AgriTalk’s host, Chip Flory, at World Dairy Expo and talked about the importance dairy plays in feeding a growing population.
“We want to make sure that people are fed,” Vilsack said. “And certainly, dairy protein is one very important component of a healthy diet and is reflected in the MyPlate initiative.”
Vilsack said that the MyPlate promotion makes it easier for people to understand exactly what a healthy plate looks like and is less complicated than the food pyramid.
“We know we need to continue to look for ways in which we can empower people with information so they can make the best choices for their families and part of what the White House conference focused on was the necessity of making this information easy to digest, easy to understand and available.”
Flory shared that he had spoken with dairy producers who wonder if the Margin Protection Program (MPP) will be part of the next farm bill. Vilsack reassured AgriTalk listeners that the MPP likely will be revamped with some modification in the next farm bill and underscored that the program works well for most operations.
Climate-Smart Partnerships
Vilsack announced last month that the USDA is investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 selected projects under the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity. The Secretary of Ag told Flory that it’s always good to listen to farmers when talking about the Climate-Smart farming initiative.
“When setting this process up, we listened to farmers,” Vilsack stated. “We followed their instructions, when they said it should be farmer-led. It should be partnerships that should be incentive driven. It should be marketing oriented. It should be volunteered. And we’ve done all of that. And the response obviously, we expected to dissipate over 50,000 farmers across the country and all 50 states will participate. Every commodity group for all intents and purposes is engaged in some really interesting technology. There’s going to be measurement, there’s going to be verification. We’re going to learn a lot from this. It’s going to allow us to take a leadership position internationally on these issues of climate. It’s going to make it easier for us to market our products overseas as being sustainably produced.”
To listen to the AgriTalk segment with Vilsack in its entirety, click on AgriTalk-AM-10-4-22-Secretary Vilsack - AgriTalk - Omny.fm.
