On July 29, 2009, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) met
with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss dairy price supports
and to urge Vilsack to raise the floor price to help farmers all over
the country who are facing falling milk and dairy product prices.
Vermont's Farmers are a critical part of our state's economy,
history and culture. From centuries-old dairy farms to year-old organic
production farms, many Vermonters depend on our lands for their livelihood.
As the senior member, and former
Chairman, of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Leahy has been a long-time
champion for Vermont agriculture, anti-hunger and environmental priorities.
Because of his efforts, the 2008 Farm Bill
expands the basic safety net for dairy farmers with the Milk Income Loss
Compensation (MILC) program, brings to Vermont record levels of funding and
wider access to farmland conservation programs that have become crucial engines
in the cleanup of Lake Champlain, and will dramatically increase support for
food banks and the Food Stamp program. The 2008 Farm Bill offers additional
support to help farmers make the transition to the booming
organic sector, a program Leahy fathered and
took effect in October 2002. Leahy's Farms for the Future program -- now the
Farmland Protection Program, which was created in the 1990 Farm Bill -- has
helped preserve more than 350 Vermont farms.
