$80M in rescue funds to support dairy industry innovation

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont have announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is assigning $80 million in federal pandemic rescue funds to support dairy industry innovation. The country’s four Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives in Vermont, California, Tennessee and Wisconsin will have access to up to $20 million each. Leahy says the additional funding couldn’t arrive a better time, as organic farmers in the Northeast face the loss of a key market later this year. Danone announced this past summer that it would stop buying milk from 89 organic dairy farms in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and New York.