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Millers and Bakers Seek to Establish a Wheat Flour Foods Promotion, Research, and Information Program
via USDA Agricultural Marketing Service website
Posted October 24, 2021 10:41 pm
by Paul Bonneville
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is posting a draft proposal from the Grain Foods Foundation (GFF) requesting the formation of a national promotion, research, and information program for wheat flour used to produce grain foods. USDA is currently analyzing the proposed order and, if warranted, may publish a proposed rule with request for public comments in the Federal Register. Interested parties can view the draft proposal and justification on the Proposed Research and Promotion Programs webpage.
If I am reading this correctly, the commodity enriched grain producers, as represented by the Grain Foods Foundation (GFF), are looking to establish a national program that would be collecting a fee from all millers and bakers to fund consolidated marketing initiatives:
The provisional proposed assessment rate for millers would be 2.4 cents per 100 pounds of wheat flour sold for the purpose of producing grain foods. The proposed rate for bakers would be 13.6 cents per 100 pounds of wheat flour purchased for the purpose of producing grain foods and 8.2 cents per 100 pounds of grain foods purchased from a sub-baker for a baker to market.
Now in reading the proposal, there would be exemptions that would exist for most smaller producers which means they would not have to pay the assessments, but they would need to file for an exemption on a yearly basis. I would assume that if you are filing for an exemption, you are also potentially reporting your sales to a commodity producer-driven entity.
How about we take those proposed assessment fees and turn it towards local grain chains? Of course that would counter the intentions of the GFF: national marketing dollars for enriched grain producers.
If your interest is deep enough, you can investigate the links to the right to read all the details yourself, but I was able to find the inspiration for why they are coming to the USDA looking for a new funding source:
"In 2004, when the “low carb” diet was hitting a popularity high and severely impacting the wheat flour industry, ABA, NAMA, and over 100 individual companies formally joined forces by creating the Grain Foods Foundation (“GFF”), a separate legal entity with a mission to serve as the marketing and communications voice for the industry. Companies and industry associations, like ABA and NAMA, support GFF through voluntary donations. Under new leadership in 2013, GFF reoriented its marketing and communications focus away from the consumer and toward media influencers. This shift in focus better aligned with GFF revenue and has successfully benefited the entire wheat flour industry. Despite this success, however, GFF’s ability to scale up its current programming efforts is limited due to its dependence on voluntary donations from members that keep its annual operational budget under $3 million."
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