Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C,I,Ref-Schoharie) attended the 2018 Dairy Summit in Albany on Monday, August 13, 2018 to discuss the growing dairy crisis and speak with experts on the dairy market. The focus was strengthening the market and addressing farmers’ concerns about the drop in milk prices in August to $15 per hundredweight, methods to increase consumption to protect the industry from imposter dairy products such as almond and soy milks and the import/export relationship the industry has with the greater marketplace.

“As a former dairy farmer, I take the crisis affecting our local dairy farms very personally, and it breaks my heart to see generationally-owned family farms days away from shutting down,” Tague said. “We need to take action to protect these farmers, who are chiefly responsible for putting food on our tables and are being taken advantage of. To this end, I am working on legislation to encourage consumption by getting whole milk products back into school lunch programs and colleges. It’s also in the farmer’s best interest to give the dairy market the opportunity to actually be a dairy market, not flood it with impostor milks that are just juices derived from almonds and soy products that gut our farmers’ ability to compete fairly. We need to aggressively start taking these steps now to protect our farmers, they deserve our support and attention before it’s too late.”