WRITTEN BY TERRY HANNUM, DELAWARE COUNTY TIMES

Here is a suggestion for a New Years Resolution:  do not eat any more industrial adhesives. This sounds not only logical but really easy to do since your grocery list seldom includes this manner of thing on it and the local markets certainly wouldn’t stock food with ingredients that might have originally been sold as glue.   Think again!

   The culprit here is Milk Protein Concentrates or MPC’s and even in this historically rich and proud dairy farming community, the mention of MPC’s brings on disdainful commentaries. They do not sound too bad, the protein of milk in a concentrated form but this is a name that honestly does not quite fit.  In fact it is so far removed from dairy that it is included in some lactose free and dairy free foods.  MPC’s are a powder that is left after all ultra-processing has been done to milk to remove all valuable components from it.  It neither is not powdered milk nor is it dry milk but something altogether different. 

     Chemists might find the composition an interesting study of the protein lineup, the chemical compounds of MPC’s but for many consumers this is not as important to understand as the uses of MPC’s.  Aside from one plant in Portales, New Mexico, this non-milk yet somehow still milk product is produced in Russia (large plant in Chernobyl), China and India to name a few. The product is then shipped to almost every other region of the globe but not as a food product or ingredient for food products.  Nations (other than United States) use MPC’s as effective, inexpensive industrial glue.

      Why does U.S. import MPC’s (in 2004 alone 34 million metric tons were shipped in and the number is much greater now) and use this industrial glue product in foods?  Of course the very short answer is ‘money’.  MPC’s, being the last end product of all milk processing is cheap, especially when it comes in from places other than U.S. where there are no regulations, no research (other than its adhesive properties), no standards and no safety oversight.  It is less expensive than using the readily available milk that is produced right in our own country. Because MPC comes into U.S. ports as a non-food product it qualifies for low tariffs and no USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) inspections.

    So here we are with millions, now stretching into billions of tons of MPC imported into our country as inedible and it is transformed into an acceptable food product.  For most people, especially those who eat, moral questions arise regarding who would allow this to happen, to knowingly feed our country’s population with a former glue substance, what sort of person would do this? 

      There is a consideration that maybe industrial glue is not too bad to eat and that everyone should increase the quantities they already consume, start a new nutrition fad. This is exactly where the rampant use of MPC did start.  The beginning craze of MPC’s came about two decades ago when the high protein, low carbohydrate diets were peaking in popularity. The spin-off of prepared foods for sale that met the eating plans dietary criteria evolved with MPC being just what they were looking for and it is cheap too!  That marked the beginning of the food processors rush to get more of this stuff, no matter if it may not even be the end product of cow milk processing but can be milk from camel, yak, water buffalo, goat, horses and sheep due to the lack of a regulatory agency.

   Several years ago, in the face of tragedies throughout the world that were resulting in the deaths of children, a milk code labeling system was started so that consumers could identify where the milk that they were buying came from.  In Delaware County ‘36’ is the magic number to know.   This began when the chemical melamine was found in the milk that had killed a child in United States and hundreds elsewhere in the world, particularly China.  Melamine found its way into children’s diet by way of infant and toddler formulas and despite research that now indicates that melamine may not have been the true culprit, it was something in the MPC.  The milk coding was the results of peoples demand to know where the milk they are buying originated from. 

Unfortunately, melamine is still being found in some MPC.

    This is the time to start checking food labels to prove that milk protein concentrates are not in the food that you eat.  Narrow the search by if you consume any processed cheeses or processed cheese products.  Subway sandwich eaters can fall in line here, supporters of what seems to be the all-American Kraft (owned by the Phillip Morris Corporation of cigarette fame) processed cheese slices along with most other corporations that make processed cheese slices, Doritos brand and other cheese flavored chips along with many other snack type foods, candy, instant coffee creamers, many nutrition drinks and baby formulas have the milk protein concentrates in them.

   Reaching out to inform consumers to a potentially hazardous and certainly offensive ingredient is a challenge.  The logical first step would be to politely ask large food manufactures to stop putting this ingredient in the food we eat.  Ok, setting logic aside and perhaps even politeness, the best way to control this situation is to obtain political backing and begin regulating the import of this ingredient.   Take action and write or email any elected officials from the President of United States to mayors.

While on a recent trip to D.C. with the U.S. Dairy Farmers and Friends to speak with House Representatives and Senators about the Dairy Industry crisis, not only did we educate the elected officials we talked with, but we got an education ourselves.

Our day started out good, hopeful even, after we went to the National Farmers Union. Here the lobbyists and workers are very aware of the dairy crisis and its causes. They offered helpful hints to us on speaking with elected officials. The National Farmers Union is an organization that the dairy farmers are in desperate need of. I thought it was similar to any other workers union, except this one is for the sole purpose of protecting and preserving American farming. Their lobbying might be our best hope in coming up with something accommodating in the 2012 Farm Bill. So far, there is no NY Chapter, only a Northeast Chapter.

We then continued on to deliver a four part message to anyone who would listen. This four part message consisted of 1) create a temporary floor price of at least $18/cwt on all milk. 2) audit cold storage reports and begin transforming a flawed system which determines the milk price 3)import MPC’s as a food, and include taxation, inspections, origin labeling and testing 4) put into place a fair milk discovery with a supply management system.

To us, these four points seems as simple as common sense. We quickly found that some elected officials either have a hard time understanding the complexity of the dairy industry (any normal person does) or perhaps have already been won over by wooing corporate (Kraft or Dean Foods to name a few) executives, who probably do more than just come in their office and have 10 minutes to deliver a message (golfing, fancy dinners, corporate events, you know, the usual). It’s a bit funny to think that people like me can throw words around that even an elected congressman didn’t know. Funny for a minute, then pretty scary. It’s quite clear that many of those who have their paws in on the U.S. Farm Bills do not know the ins and outs of how dairy farming works, they couldn’t tell you how the milk price is determined, or even why the government is involved in it.

Alas, all this negativity, there was, and is, a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a small one, and the tunnel is up a steep hill, but it’s there. We rode away with the satisfaction that we DID delivery our message to elected officials and their aides. More people know about it. It was easy to see we made an impact. For a small bus of farmers wandering around the capitol buildings, all of the elected officials and aides knew why we were there. Even the ones we didn’t meet with knew we were there to impress how bad the dairy crisis is.

This showed us quickly that this battle is going to take many baby steps. Everyone must be involved. If you milk cows, it is your duty and right to at the least write in to your representatives and voice your concerns. They do listen. Now is a good time as they begin talks for the 2012 Farm Bill in March 2010. Keep up the pressure, if possible, take a trip to D.C. meet with your representatives, make them see your faces and hear your words. That is what they will remember when they are writing the 2012 Farm Bill. If we don’t speak up, corporate execs are the only ones who will. It can be very frustrating to attend a town hall type gathering, and you leave feeling disappointed, but the more the dairy crisis is brought up, the more it’s thought about, and the farther we’ll get in this campaign!

Send your message not only to the government, but any consumer. Tell your friends, tell your children's schools, 4-H groups, FFA groups, your grocer, insurance man, get everyone involved in spreading this message. If more consumers demand wholesome American dairy products, you’ll take a baby step in securing some kind of future for farming. Start getting involved today to help change the future of farming!

Call us or the U.S. Dairy Farmers and Friends (315-858-0163) if you would like handout or contact info. National Farmers Union at http://nfu.org/ or phone (202) 554-1600. Remember to focus on the current issues and the

future solutions!