On Monday, Politico reported that farm “lobbyists have been laboring for months” to try to secure tens of millions of dollars in federal aid for their members, who are struggling thanks to a combination of overproduction and low commodity prices.
Those who’ve been shaking cups in the nation’s capital include lobbyists from the American Farm Bureau and the National Milk Producers Federation. The aid they’ve sought centers on increasing the amount of wheat present in shipments of foreign food aid, expanding loans to farmers, and getting more cash in the hands of dairy producers.
By Tuesday, aid for dairy farmers was already a done deal. All that vigorous cup-shaking had turned into $20 million in USDA purchases of surplus cheese. That’s on top of the $11 million in additional support for dairy producers the USDA announced earlier this month.