USA – The United States Department for Agriculture (USDA) has released a report on the effects of government dairy programmes which highlights the need for dairy policy reform.

Commenting on the report, the International Dairy Foods Association’s (IDFA) senior vice president Chip Kunde said that the report showed that the current complex web of government dairy programmes did little to help dairy farmers, and that many programmes actually conflicted with each other.

“The USDA’s report repeatedly notes that other forces like technology, consumer demand and underlying economic efficiencies are the real drivers of change in the dairy industry, and that current policies sometimes work against those positive forces,” said Kunde.