Josh Riley Promotes The Dairy Industry With Cosponsorships
Freshman U.S. Representative Josh Riley has announced his first cosponsorship of legislation, a trio of bills that promote the interests of the dairy industry.
Two of the bills were introduced a month ago by Nick Langworthy, a Republican who represents the 23rd congressional district of New York, just to the west of Riley’s district. These are:
H.R. 295, the Fair Milk Pricing for Farmers Act, which requires dairy processors to report their cost and yield information to a centralized government regulatory authority. The goal of this regulation is to increase transparency of market costs, so that dairy farmers can be confident that they are being paid for the milk they produce at a reasonable price.
H.R. 294, the Dairy Farm Resiliency Act provides for adjustments to the Dairy Margin Coverage Program, which is administered by the Farm Service Agency. Daily Margin Coverage provides a financial hedge for dairy farmers, providing money to farms when the market price of milk falls below the level of financial viability.
Josh Riley also claimed to be cosponsoring the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, but that legislation has not yet been introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives. A bill by the same name was introduced two years ago, but failed to achieve enough bipartisan support for passage.
The idea of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is to bring whole milk back into public school lunches, in order fo dairy businesses to gain a larger market in which to sell their milk. The legislation is controversial, with some members of Congress asserting that it would sacrifice the health of America’s children for the financial benefit of large commercial dairies. The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity criticizes the bill as “a slippery slope for allowing special interests to carve out exemptions in school meal program rules,” and the Center for Science in the Public Interest describes it as “unwarranted political meddling with evidence-based nutrition standards aimed at protecting kids’ health.”
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine also opposes the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, saying that “Whole dairy milk is high in saturated fat and poses significant health risks to children.” Specifically, the PCRM explains that whole milk is high in saturated fat, which is associated with increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and eventually Alzheimer’s.
