Guest Columns

Perspective:
Industry Issues

Thank you. I’m proud of what we’ve done for our industry

Jim Mulhern

Jim Mulhern, president and CEO, National Milk Producers Federation, contributes this column for Cheese Market News®.

This is my last column for Cheese Market News, one of the many privileges I’ve had as NMPF’s president and CEO, a role I will leave at the end of this year. How appropriate that I am able to offer these thoughts as we celebrate Thanksgiving.

For after more than four decades working in and near dairy, the most important words I’ve been saying as I approach these final weeks are “thank you” — to everyone from the dairy industry leaders and staff who I have been privileged to work with, to the farmers and cooperatives who have sponsored and supported our important work at the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF). And a special thanks to Cheese Market News Publisher Susan Quarne and the entire CMN team for all your great work.

But in addition to thanks, I also need to say, “I’m proud of this industry” for all the successes we’ve seen, and for how that success will help position everyone who cares about dairy for further gains to come.

I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to be part of nearly every major dairy policy debate since the early 1980s — from the establishment of the national dairy checkoff program in 1983, the very first dairy issue I worked on at Capitol Hill, to the federal milk marketing order (FMMO) modernization effort currently underway, and scores of issues in between.

No achievements are ever static: The checkoff has become an incredibly vital tool for our industry, as seen at our successful joint annual meeting with them in Orlando earlier this month — and it continues to evolve, showing strong leadership in critical areas.

Our federal order system is evolving as well — for the better, I predict, after our modernization proposal becomes the basis for a comprehensive USDA plan sometime next year. The changes we are advocating will strengthen the program’s ability to improve orderly marketing of milk by better reflecting today’s market realities. And those changes will happen because of the leadership, engagement and hard work of all of NMPF’s dairy cooperative members and the broader dairy producer community.

Other examples of which we can all be proud — and confident in our future success — include our sustainability journey. We recognized the climate issue as a looming challenge more than 15 years ago. We knew that our opponents would try to position dairy as part of the problem — but we vowed to be part of the solution. I was fortunate to be involved in those early efforts as the checkoff program engaged key stakeholders, conducted a Life Cycle Assessment of fluid milk — the first-ever on a U.S. agricultural product — and helped develop the science to establish our industry’s baseline.

NMPF, meanwhile, has focused on programs and policies that provide voluntary incentives to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and prevent onerous, costly regulations. We are seeing the fruits of these efforts, as federal programs are beginning to provide funding to enable on-farm technologies to mitigate emissions and help facilitate our U.S. dairy industry Net Zero goal.

There is much yet to be done, but because of the foresight and commitment of key players across the dairy value chain, I am confident we will achieve it.

I am also proud of our work in the economic policy arena to help producers of all sizes deal with the volatility inherent in commodity milk prices. The Dairy Margin Coverage program provides protection without stimulating increased milk production, and we continue working to improve other risk management tools for larger farms through the USDA-supported Dairy Revenue Protection and Livestock Gross Margin-Dairy programs. Collectively, these efforts provide the most comprehensive federal risk management suite our industry has ever had.

There are so many other issues I could talk about where we’ve made great progress, and a few — like immigration reform and our ag labor problem — where success remains elusive. Despite these challenges, I know that the future of this industry is very bright. And that’s because of our industry’s willingness to work together to advance important goals.

By proactively engaging with a host of stakeholders — policymakers, customers, proprietary processors, consumer and public health groups, other agricultural organizations and even potential critics — we can address our needs and advance our collective interests. Strains inevitably occur — I’m disappointed in some of the short-sighted views and harsh rhetoric I’ve heard at the USDA FMMO hearing this fall — but I’m proud of the much more numerous times when we have made greater gains, achieved better results and advanced our industry by getting our house in order and then engaging from a position of unity and strength.

In my role as NMPF’s CEO, I’ve always focused on workable solutions. When I accepted the job, I told our board that my goal was simple: to strengthen the dairy cooperative and dairy producer community and help build a brighter future. Any success I’ve had during my tenure has been because of great people — on the farm, in our marketing and processing operations, on my staff and in the many entities working to advance dairy’s cause.

We are producing a great product — nature’s most perfect food — whose demand is growing both domestically and internationally. And we have the world’s most efficient, productive, resilient and sustainable dairy industry here in the U.S.

It’s because of our people and our product — and our willingness to work together — that I have loved working in this industry and see a very bright future ahead.

My journey in dairy has exceeded the wildest dreams of what I thought might be accomplished when it began many years ago. As I prepare for Act III of my life, I can simply say I’ve been proud to have been a part of this great industry — and I know that the efforts we have made together will be a prelude for greater, future success. Godspeed.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

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