House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., wants to reform federal dairy policy ahead of the 2012 Farm Bill debate.

“If we have another downturn in prices we don’t have a safety net that works in dairy,” Peterson said. “If we get another deal like we did in ‘09 we’re going to lose half our dairy farmers, and we’re never going to get them back. So I don’t think it is an option to wait.”

Peterson backs the National Milk Producers Federation’s dairy market stabilization program, dubbed Foundation for the Future, and says a just-completed Congressional Budget Office scoring shows the proposal would cost taxpayers less than existing dairy policy and therefore would not add to the budget deficit, thus satisfying a key demand of House Republican leaders.

For more detail click here.