Our co-op’s profile on federal issues and with policymakers in Washington, D.C., has grown substantially in the past year. The decision to hire Washington-based lobbying firm Michael Torrey & Associates (MTA) has been a big part of that success along with additional staff on our government affairs team.  

In late October, I had the chance to serve on a Farm Bill panel at a conference put on by Cooperative Network, an organization representing co-ops, both dairy and otherwise, in Wisconsin and Minnesota. In addition to representatives from Wisconsin Farm Bureau and Minnesota Farmers Union, we were joined on the panel by staff from four different congressional offices. Those offices, Sean Duffy, R-Wis., Ron Kind, D-Wis., Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Tom Emmer, R-Mich., allowed for a bipartisan discussion of ag-centric issues with people representing both states.  

With the primary focus of the panel being the Farm Bill, discussion centered on issues like the future of the Margin Protection Program and other risk management tools, crop insurance, ways to improve the conservation title and the expected role of the nutrition title in upcoming debates.  

Besides the Farm Bill, the panel also discussed Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s Agricultural Guestworker Act, a bill that was going through committee markup (a hearing where a bill is debated and potentially amended) at the same time as the conference. Sarah Hubbart, who works with the co-op at MTA, attended that hearing on the bill, which represents the best opportunity agriculture has had in over a decade to deal with the workforce shortages we face. The bill ultimately was voted out of committee with some amendments. This marks an early, but significant step forward for the legislation.   

All of us at Edge are excited to continue to raise awareness about our cooperative and the policy issues that are important to our membership. At the same time our new brand was being announced at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Convention in Kansas City, Mo., I was in D.C. with Edge Board President John Pagel meeting with legislators and introducing them to our new brand.  

In 10 different Hill meetings, we met with members of Congress or staff representing South Dakota, Nebraska and Wisconsin. We also had the chance to meet again with Peter Bachmann, a policy adviser to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue.  

During these meetings, we touched on key issues affecting dairy farmers through the United States: labor issues, the need for better foreign market development and concerns about the upcoming Farm Bill. In addition, we raised our support for the DAIRY PRIDE act, which would address the mislabeling of plant-based beverages as milk, and our desire to grow domestic consumption of milk through improvements to the school milk program and the Farm Bill’s nutrition title.  

Finally, the topic of taxes was top of mind for many of the lawmakers because our visits came as the House tax plan was working its way through committee and the Senate was finalizing its version. While everyone is still trying to understand these plans and their likely impacts, we were able to flag a few areas of likely concern for farmers. We want to make sure that agriculture is not left out of the intended tax benefits.  

In addition to our meetings at the Capitol and USDA, we also had the chance to introduce other groups that operate in the dairy policy space to our new brand. We attended a meeting of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives’ Government Affairs Committee meeting. We also had meetings with colleagues at the International Dairy Products Association and National Milk Producers Federation. These meetings were a good time to check in with one another about issues of common concern.  

We know that our farmers want a stronger voice on issues that matter to the dairy community. Edge will build on the past successes of DBMMC and take our political advocacy to the next level. We are looking forward to an exciting 2018, which will offer opportunities for farmers to get more involved in our work in Washington.