jan-feb-2019

ADVOCACY REPORT The landscape in Washington, D.C. is changing. The year began with the House being controlled by Democrats, who are now the majority, while Republicans gained a larger majority of the Senate. Here’s an update on some of the top issues growers should be watching: Farm Bill The Farm Bill was passed and signed into law by the President at the end of last year. Much of 2019 will be getting the bill implemented. The top priority of excluding the Dairy Pride Act from the Farm bill was achieved and anticipate more work ahead of us as the dairy industry seeks to make it a law. The new Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee is a strong supporter of dairy and the Dairy Pride Act. There was success in obtaining supported provisions in the Farm Bill, such as preserving MAP with a slight increase, and TASC and crop insurance for almonds. The Democrats generally support all three of these programs, which will be helpful in the House. FDA Last year, the dairy industry persuaded the Food and Drug Administration to look at enforcing the existing Standard of Identity for milk. If the FDA rules in favor of the dairy industry, Blue Diamond would be required to change the labeling on Almond Breeze products by deleting “almondmilk” from the label. The FDA has opened the issue up for comments and we are preparing to get those filed while trying to obtain FDA’s allowance of the use of “almondmilk” on our label. Trade Due to all the trade actions being taken by both the U.S. and our trading partners, the issue coninues to require constant and increased attention. Almond are currently the subject of retaliatory tariffs imposed by several of our key markets, including China and Turkey. India proposed to increase the tariff on almonds, but has so far delayed that action. Agriculture has been affected and the President announced a program to provide some relief to the industry in the form of direct payments, increased food purchases, and help 2 0 A L M O N D F A C T S