Jim T. Ryan covers manufacturing, technology, transportation, work force and Cumberland County. He has been with the Central Penn Business Journal since 2006. 
Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell C. Redding has joined other Northeast states calling for federal price controls on certain dairy products to help farmers hurt by sustained low milk prices.
Redding is asking U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reinstate federal support prices for cheddar block and barrel cheese, and non-fat dry milk to August 2009 levels, according to the state.
Redding is asking U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reinstate federal support prices for cheddar block and barrel cheese, and non-fat dry milk to August 2009 levels, according to the state.
“Restoring the support prices will provide an immediate boost to the economic stability of Pennsylvania's nearly 7,300 dairy farm families, and help them begin to rebuild the decades of equity lost during the past 15 months,” Redding said in a statement.
Pennsylvania is joining Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont in a letter to Vilsack asking for the price controls.
Milk prices in the Keystone State fell more than 40 percent in 2009, according to the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board.
Dairy prices fell 27 percent in the first quarter nationwide and over the summer amounted to only about half of what it cost to produce milk, according to the USDA.
