{"id":7165,"date":"2009-10-01T09:44:46","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T15:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=7165"},"modified":"2009-10-01T10:58:03","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T16:58:03","slug":"vilsack-hears-from-dairy-farmers-in-las-cruces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/10\/vilsack-hears-from-dairy-farmers-in-las-cruces\/","title":{"rendered":"Vilsack hears from dairy farmers in Las Cruces"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7174\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 325px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7174 \" title=\"Vilsack\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Vilsack.jpg\" alt=\"Vilsack speaking at Wednesday's meeting in Las Cruces. (Photo courtesy of USDA)\" width=\"325\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Vilsack.jpg 325w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Vilsack-300x252.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vilsack speaking at Wednesday&#39;s meeting in Las Cruces. (Photo by Ernie Watson\/USDA)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>U.S. Agriculture Secretary <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tom_Vilsack\">Tom Vilsack<\/a> heard complaints on Wednesday from dairy farmers about the need for changes in the system, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/ci_13459096\">Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon Lombardi, director of the Diary Producers of New Mexico, told Vilsack during a community meeting in Las Cruces that the industry needs a new pricing formula and complained that some new policies hurt the industry. As an example, she said the promotion of crops in biofuel production have driven up costs and hurt dairy farmers.<\/p>\n<p>Vilsack, according to the Sun-News, said he\u2019s \u201cnot sold on the notion that biofuels are driving feed costs up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI look at the number of acres planted, and I look at productivity and I look at exports, and I look at grain available for feed, and I look at whether biofuels have taken grains from any of those categories,\u201d the newspaper quoted him as saying. \u201cIf they have, I\u2019d assume that we\u2019d see less exports, feed available, but we don\u2019t see any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, the agriculture secretary acknowledged difficulties for dairy farmers. While he said his department is working on short-term ways to address that reality, the Sun-News quoted him as saying \u201cwe need a long-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a boom-and-bust cycle; that makes it extremely difficult for farmers,\u201d the Sun-News quoted Vilsack as saying.<\/p>\n<p>At the meeting, attended by more than 300 people, Vilsack also talked about federal funding that\u2019s available because of the stimulus bill. Afterward, he said in a news release that the meeting was a success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is critically important to hear the thoughts, concerns and stories about New Mexico\u2019s vision for<br \/>\nits future and to collect ideas about how USDA can better serve these communities,\u201d Vilsack said. \u201cThe thoughts, ideas and concerns for the future I heard in Las Cruces were a reminder of the strength and optimism I have seen in communities throughout rural America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack heard complaints on Wednesday from dairy farmers about the need for changes in the system, the Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[118,145,116],"class_list":["post-7165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-economy","tag-las-cruces","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}