Quarterly Dairy Legal Webinar

Penn State’s Center for Agricultural and Shale Law continues its Quarterly Dairy Legal Webinar series in 2023. Free one-hour webinars cover the legal and regulatory developments in the U.S. dairy industry from the preceding quarter. Each also includes an in-depth look at a single focus topic of law, regulation, or government policy of interest to dairy professionals of all kinds.

1 hour of substantive CLE credit is available for Pennsylvania licensed attorneys at no charge.

April 23, 2024 (1st Quarter of 2024) 12 noon–1pm (ET). This quarter’s focus topic is U.S. State Milk Pricing & Supports, Part 1. In addition to the Federal Milk Marketing Order, which establishes a national milk pricing system, several states (besides Pennsylvania) also have their own pricing systems. The focus topic in this Quarterly Dairy Legal Webinar will provide an overview of the various state milk pricing systems in the United States and discuss their similarities and differences. (Register)

Questions? Email Jackie Schweichler: jks251@psu.edu

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Dairy and Dairy Products Law Virtual Resource Room

Interested in learning more about dairy laws? Check out our Dairy and Dairy Products Law Virtual Resource Room where you’ll find a compilation of legal resources relating to industry, state and federal regulations, promotion, jurisprudence, and more.

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Past Quarterly Dairy Legal Webinars and Materials

February 13, 2024 (4th Quarter of 2023) 12 noon–1pm (ET). This quarter’s focus topic is An Overview of Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Law (Beyond the Over-Order Premium). Often, Pennsylvania’s Milk Marketing Law is equated simply with the law’s “over-order premium” (OOP), the extra mandated amount to be paid to Pennsylvania producers for qualifying milk volumes. However, the law establishes and regulates much more than just the OOP. This webinar will provide an overview of Pennsylvania’s Milk Marketing Law and discuss several of the law’s provisions, including minimum wholesale and retail pricing and milk dealer licensing and bonding requirements.

October 17, 2023 (3rd Quarter of 2023) 12 noon–1pm (ET). The focus topic this quarter will be Risk Management/Income & Revenue Protection. This webinar will review and explain the operation and administration of USDA’s risk management and income protection programs for dairy producers. These programs include USDA’s highly successful Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program, which guarantees a desired margin between an established all-milk price and a calculated average feed cost; Dairy Revenue Protection; Livestock Gross Margin—Dairy; the Dairy Indemnity Payment Program; the pandemic-related Dairy Donation and Market Volatility Assistance Programs; 2022’s Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance Program (ODMAP); and 2023’s Milk Loss Program (MLP) for 2020–2022 disaster event losses.

July 18, 2023 (2nd Quarter of 2023) 12 noon–1pm (ET). The focus topic this quarter will be the administrative process to establish and amend Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMOs). The webinar will address the statutory authorization behind the entire FMMO system and discuss how FMMOs are administered in comparison to other marketing orders adopted by producers under federal law. The webinar will also provide some background on prior reform effort proposals.  This background will be provided in order for participants to better understand the current reform proposals filed with USDA and how they may proceed. We’ll also touch upon the substance and run-up to the recent filings, their procedural posture, and some posturing of other sorts that has caused rifts between major players in the industry. (Register)

April 18, 2023 (1st Quarter of 2023) 12 noon ET. In addition to a round-up of quarterly legal developments, the focus topic will be the International Dairy Trade: Canada–U.S. USMCA Arbitration Round 2. Almost immediately upon entering the USMCA trade pact with Canada and Mexico in 2020, the U.S. trade relationship with Canada hit a rough patch over potential dairy exports to Canada, specifically the eligibility criteria for Canadian importers’ potential use of a quota of favorable dairy tariff rates on U.S. dairy products. The U.S. took Canada to arbitration in 2021 and won. Nevertheless, Canada held steadfast to its dairy tariff rate quota system and made minimal changes. As a result, we are now headed to a second round of USMCA arbitration between the U.S. and Canada over the same, and some newly added, tariff rate eligibility issues. All will be explained as we examine the details of this dispute between international neighbors.

January 17, 2023 (4th Quarter of 2022) 12 noon ET. In addition to a round-up of quarterly legal developments, the focus topic will be the Interstate Regulation of Milk Production and Processing: An Overview of the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance and Interstate Milk Shippers Program. The federal government’s current role in the creation and maintenance of a federal milk pricing system is recognized. The historical state-by-state regulation of milk production and processing as a food safety function of government is sometimes said to be historically “left to the states.” However, the reality is much more complex. Learn the nuts and bolts of how this most perishable of agricultural commodities has been freely flowing across state lines through a combination of federal and state regulatory authority and a large amount of voluntary industry contribution and compliance.

October 25, 2022 (3rd Quarter of 2022) 12 noon ET. In addition to a round-up of quarterly legal developments, the focus topic will be the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill and the potential implications for the dairy industry.  What new or revised provisions, programs or policies impacting dairy are the subject of advocacy and by whom? Dairy remains a core commodity and the revenue protection programs, for example, have been tweaked in each of the last few farm bills. Federal Milk Marketing Order reform remains hotly debated and looks to be front and center in the 2023 Farm Bill negotiations.

July 26, 2022 (2nd Quarter of 2022) 12 noon ET. In addition to a round-up of quarterly legal developments, the focus topic will be the history and progress, or lack thereof, of efforts to institute labeling standards for plant-based foods and beverages being manufactured and sold as substitutes for milk and dairy. 

April 26, 2022 (1st Quarter of 2022) Animal welfare in dairy, including voluntary initiatives like the F.A.R.M. program, the legal and regulatory mechanisms to enforce animal welfare standards and growing concerns about animal activism, trespassing and the protection of a dairy farmers’ private property rights.

February 22, 2022 (4th Quarter of 2021) Dairy Industry Carbon Reduction Programs including U.S. Dairy’s Net Zero initiative, F.A.R.M. Environmental Stewardship, and carbon market participation programs that have been initiated by dairy cooperatives exclusively for their members.

December 16, 2021 (3rd Quarter of 2021) USDA’s Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program and the Dairy Donation Program. Each program stretches the parameters of USDA disaster relief programs with innovative features that attempt to correct for market distortions suffered by both producers and processors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

July 27, 2021 (2nd Quarter of 2021) Geographical Indications in international dairy trade. The webinar will cover the international and U.S. laws that govern this area and problems arising in the use and protection of geographical indications in U.S. and EU dairy trade.

April 27, 2021 (1st Quarter of 2021) Federal Milk Marketing Order Reform with our special guest and dairy economics and policy expert Dr. Andrew Novakovic, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, Cornell University.

January 26, 2021 (4th Quarter of 2020) International trade agreement terms and on-going trade disputes impacting the dairy industry in the United States with Becky Rasdall, Vice-President of Trade Policy and International Affairs, International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA).

October 27, 2020 (3rd Quarter of 2020) Establishment and Impact of California’s FMMO 51 with Marvin Beshore, Esq., lead counsel on the petition establishing FMMO 51.