Got Counsel? Wisconsin Farmers Sue Over ‘Got Milk?’ Program

Glass of milk.

Three Wisconsin dairy farmers, with the help of a conservative law firm, are challenging the federal dairy checkoff program responsible for promotional efforts like the “Got Milk?” campaign.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed the lawsuit Tuesday against U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board.

Created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1983, the dairy checkoff requires American farmers to pay a fee on the milk they produce to fund industry marketing and research efforts, both at the state and national levels. Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin is one of the programs that receives these funds.

Similar checkoff programs exist for a number of other agricultural industries, including beef, pork, eggs and potatoes.

But the lawsuit calls the dairy checkoff a “burdensome federal program that leads to the demise of small farms under the guise of environmental ‘sustainability.’”

It points to the checkoff-funded Innovation Center for Dairy Research, which highlights environmental stewardship as one its priorities.

The Center, whose board of directors is made up of top dairy industry CEOs, lists a number of environmental sustainability goals on its website, including achieving greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050 and improving water quality by optimizing use of manure.

The lawsuit alleges the Center’s focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions does not relate to the dairy checkoff program’s purpose of promoting and marketing dairy products.

“At worst, the message directly opposes those interests by accusing the dairy industry of harming the environment,” the lawsuit reads.

In recent years, national and international food brands have announced new goals around environmental stewardship and reducing emissions in response to consumer demand for sustainability.

Rebecca Furdek, deputy counsel for WILL, argued companies may choose to respond to that demand. But farmers should not be required to fund sustainability initiatives they don’t support.

She said the producers in the lawsuit feel that an increasing reporting and regulatory burden is hurting their ability to operate.

“That’s the opinion of our clients, in being forced to subsidize speech with which they disagree, and then after doing so, pay for it on their farms, whether through onerous data collection or through subsequent (environmental, social and governance) mandates and initiatives pushed on them by these organizations,” Furdek said.

She said the lawsuit seeks to stop future checkoff dollars from funding the Innovation Center.

Leonard Polzin, dairy markets and policy outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension, said checkoff dollars have long been used in research developing new products or processes for the industry.

But he said whether the demand for research is driven by consumer interests or the industry itself can be hard to define.

“Teasing out all of the actual analyticals of everything is always difficult,” he said.

U.S. dairy farmers pay 15 cents for every 100 pounds of milk produced. Polzin said that can add up, especially when profit margins are already slim.

A spokesperson for Dairy Management Inc., which manages national checkoff dollars, did not immediately respond to WPR’s request for comment.

Got a lawyer? Wisconsin law firm challenges national dairy marketing program was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.