The U. S. Department of Agriculture announced last week that it will hold a national public hearing to consider proposals seeking to amend or remove the producer-handler provisions and revise the exempt plant provisions in all Federal Milk Marketing Orders. After IDFA and the National Milk Producers Federation submitted initial proposals, USDA received new proposals from dairy farmers, producer-handlers, dairy farmer cooperatives and fluid milk processors. The hearing will begin at 1:00 p.m. on May 4 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Bob Yonkers, IDFA vice president and chief economist, will represent IDFA. More details are available here.