Rhode Island Governor Carcieri Joins New England Governors to Seek Support for Family Farms

May 15, 2009 -- Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri today joined the other New England Governor’s in a letter to the New England Congressional delegation seeking economic relief to the more than 2,000 farm families in New England with an increase in the USDA’s Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC) payment level to dairy producers. MILC, administered by the Farm Service Agency's (FSA), compensates dairy producers when domestic milk prices fall below a specified level.

The New England Governors requested increasing the MILC payment utilization rate from 45 percent to 79 percent of the Class 1 price, retroactive to February 1, 2009. As noted in the letter, “while the cost of production remains high, prices to farmers have plummeted. Dairy product prices are not expected to recover until late this year at the earliest, threatening the survival of dairy farms in the region.”

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“Family farms have been just as hard hit by the national economic downturn as the banking and automobile industries,” said Governor Donald L. Carcieri. “Our family dairy farmers are key contributors to the state’s agriculture industry, and we need to provide relief before the family farm disappears forever” said Governor Donald L. Carcieri.

FSA makes MILC payments on a monthly basis when the Boston Class I (BCI) milk price falls below $16.94 per hundredweight (cwt) as adjusted by the dairy feed ration adjustment. Milk prices were at a high of $20.58 per cwt in November 2008, and subsequently fell to $13.61 per cwt for April 2009.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 2007 Census, slightly over 10 percent of RI’s total land area is currently farmland. Nationally, the number of farms in the U.S. increased for the first time since World War II, rising by four percent from 2002 to 2007. Within New England, the number of farms increased from 28,254 to 33,112. In RI, there were 1,219 farms – a 42 percent increase over 2002 – and 24 percent of farms are operated by women, as compared to 17 percent in 2002. Rhode Island is home to 18 family dairy farms.

For more information on MILC and how it is calculated, please visit www.fsa.usda.gov.

Source: Rhode Island Governor