Who we are

The Dairy Policy Action Coalition (DPAC) is a coalition of grassroots dairy producers actively participating, with a unified voice, on policies and issues affecting milk pricing.

How the coalition began

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented action. Dairy producers across the nation met throughout 2009 in small groups to affect change. These grassroots groups have also hosted very large meetings drawing hundreds of their peers. In November 2009, the first organizational meeting for initiating this coalition included two or three representatives from each of eight such grassroots groups, spanning two federal orders and marketing milk through a variety of different cooperatives and as independents in Pennsylvania and Ohio. They came together for a single purpose: To actively participate in dairy policy that affects milk pricing.

The target is milk pricing, and that means any policy or regulation that affects milk pricing—from price discovery, inventory reporting, federal order reform, marketplace transparency, and the support price system, to global trade, mechanisms for supply management, and risk management.

The 20 charter members who came together on November 19, 2009 to form DPAC were the coalition's first board of directors for 2010. The 2011 board now includes active dairy producers from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, with ad hoc members serving on action groups from these states and the additional states of Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi. DPAC responds to an average of three meeting requests (in person or by teleconference) weekly from producers and organizations coast-to-coast who are interested in participating. As producers from more regions become involved, the composition of the DPAC board of directors has flexibility to increasingly reflect its nation-wide focus.