Mountain of Butter, to Sell or Donate?

EMILY GERSEMA / AP 29sep03

WASHINGTON -- Senators told the government Monday that it's threatening the dairy industry by planning to go to market with a mountain of butter rather than give it away to organizations that feed the hungry.

The Agriculture Department's dilemma is to deal with 11 million pounds of butter amassed over the years under the government's price-support programs. Led by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., 16 senators sent Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman a letter urging against a sale.

"The timing of your department's decision to release these stocks of butter could have an adverse impact on prices received by dairy farmers, and we believe there is a better option," they wrote.

Already depressed dairy prices could be driven even lower, the letter said.

The department often purchases dairy products like butter, cheese and nonfat dry milk as part of its program to help dairy farmers faced with low prices. Sometimes it donates the products to other countries or to food pantries and soup kitchens.

The agency could do the same in this case, the lawmakers wrote, noting that America's Second Harvest, a nonprofit network that helps provide food to food banks and shelters, would be interested in a donation.

Besides Leahy, the letter was signed by Sens. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt.; Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Herbert Kohl, D-Wis., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; John Breaux, D-La.; Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; Norm Coleman, R-Minn.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Mark Dayton, D-Minn.; Russ Feingold, D-Wis.; Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; Mary Landrieu, D-La.; Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.; and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Alisa Harrison, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, said officials need to review the letter before commenting.

Milk prices for farmers have bottomed out in the last year to about $11 per hundredweight, or about 11 1/2 gallons. That's as low as prices were 25 years ago. Butter prices are $1.16 per pound, slightly higher than last year's 94 cents per pound but still low.

The National Farmers Union, a farmers group, also wrote to Veneman asking for the sale to be halted.

• Notes: 1 pound of butter is about 29.25 cubic inches of mass, making 1.00 cubic feet weigh about 58 pounds. 11 million pounds of butter would be about 189,655 cubic feet. Divide that by the square foot area of a football field—48,000 sq ft—and the answer is 3.9511458 feet.