DOPP Online Aids Producers
The job of staffers in the Risk Management Agency is to help give agricultural producers the tools they need to manage risk. One such program to accomplish that goal is RMA’s Dairy Options Pilot Program, or DOPP, which offers dairy producers hands-on risk management training to learn to protect the market price of their milk by buying futures options.

And now, having entered its fourth year, DOPP is now online.

Lon Burke, USDA coordinator of the DOPP program, explained that participants in DOPP are obtaining experience in using price risk management tools. For example, they gain hands-on training in buying what are called “milk put options contracts” to ensure a minimum price for their milk.

Then, after completing the DOPP training, dairy producers have four months to purchase up to 600,000 pounds of certain classifications of “milk put options.”

“And, now that DOPP training is available online,” said Jody Firmani, RMA’s distance learning coordinator, “we’re now extending the accessibility of training beyond the program’s current classroom limitation.”

“Contracting and travel expenses normally associated with traditional training have become prohibitive,” said David Vennell, manager of distance education and technology for the Video, Teleconference, and Radio Center in the Office of Communications. “RMA brought this training program online for $8,000. Plus, it used mostly in-house technical resources--a goal I always try to encourage.”

“Most traditional CD-ROM courses,” he said, “can cost $100,000 to $150,000 per training module.”

So, who dreamed up the idea for an interactive DOPP online training software? Author Craig Witt, who directs RMA’s Risk Management Education Program, wanted to extend DOPP’s reach. “We had to develop a down-to-earth training package that assured students would understand basic concepts of the DOPP program,” he explained, “since some producers can’t attend the one-day sessions in their communities.”

After prospective users reviewed the package, Firmani and Vennell jockeyed the new training module onto USDA’s new distance learning server. But before any online training even began, they quickly discovered an unexpected benefit from the new interactive software: it wasn’t very much more expensive, or complicated, to add online training for RMA employees as well.

“Since the USDA distance learning server comfortably handles the training needs of RMA employees who take a variety of online training courses,” Firmani said, “we had no problem when the DOPP producers and brokers from the pilot counties started their online training. Over 200 brokers and producers have successfully completed the online DOPP course.”

Looking to the future, Firmani said, “Moreover, dramatic growth is expected in distance learning programs and in our capacity to serve more students.” •

--Mary Rekas

AMS’s 'Kitchen’ Aided Dialogue
“The idea was to give several American Indian tribal leaders and elders an exposure to AMS’s 'kitchen,’ in a sense--so they could, in turn, go back to Indian Reservations and promote the benefits of consuming USDA agricultural commodities.”

Shoshana Avrishon, an outreach specialist with the Foreign Agricultural Service and a member of USDA’s American Indian Council (AIC), was describing the purpose of a Commodity Education Forum for American Indians which USDA sponsored last fall.

Coordinated by the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Farm Service Agency, the Food and Nutrition Service, and the AIC, and held at USDA headquarters in Washington, DC, the forum was attended by representatives of the Abenaki, Algonquin, Blackfoot, Caddo, Caw, Cherokee, Hochunk, Hopi, Lakota, Mayan, Mic Mac, Mohawk, Natchez, Navajo, Ojibway, Oneida, Taino, Tlingit, and Wampanoag tribes.

“The goal of this first-time meeting,” Avrishon added, “was to enhance communications between the Department and those American Indians--located on the scores of reservations throughout the U.S.--who are recipients of USDA agricultural commodities.”

She said that the desire for enhanced communications stemmed from an interest, by Indian recipients of USDA agricultural commodities, on how those commodities are selected, purchased, processed, inspected, tested, and ultimately delivered to those reservations. “In addition,” she said, “there have been some lingering misconceptions and misunderstandings, on some Indian Reservations, concerning the health, safety, and nutritional value of those commodities.”

“The beef in that can you’re holding is also available without added salt, for those recipients on Indian Reservations who are concerned about hypertension,” notes AMS livestock and meat marketing specialist Steve Olson (right), as he and FAS agricultural research advisor Calvina Dupre partake of items on the Department’s special 'menu’ during a recent USDA-sponsored Commodity Education Forum for American Indians. Also enjoying the buffet...

...is Jean Ann Day (center), an Indian tribal elder from the Hochunk Indian Reservation in Wisconsin who is sampling a vegetable medley prepared from USDA agricultural food commodities made available to Indian Reservations. --Photos by Ken Hammond

“So this interaction was designed to foster an environment where our American Indian guests could feel comfortable enough to express their concerns and ask questions about the commodities-- and have USDA specialists address those specific concerns.”

Karen Lessard, a writer-editor in the Forest Service and AIC historian, noted that the 40 participants did actually partake of items on USDA’s special 'menu’ for the occasion, including baked chicken, spaghetti, chicken pot pie, tuna salad, vegetable dishes, and various fruit cobblers. “All of those items were prepared from USDA agricultural food commodities that are made available to Indian Reservations,” she said. “That’s why we served them at this event.”

“Food program and commodity specialists from AMS and FSA helped with the servings,” added AMS agricultural marketing specialist Valerie Schmale. “They wanted to be there to respond to any questions participants had about the agricultural commodities.”

The September 1998 issue of the USDA News carried a story about nutritional improvements which FNS made to the monthly commodity food package USDA distributes on Indian Reservations as part of its “Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.”

Wayne Brewer, an AMS computer specialist and AIC vice-chair, said that the American Indian Council is an employee organization that was chartered in 1996 to give the American Indian and Alaskan Native community greater visibility within USDA. “One of AIC’s goals,” he said, “is to assist USDA with the delivery of various USDA programs and services to 'Indian Country,’ such as food aid, education, and developing agribusiness.”

Lessard said that USDA and AIC hope to hold future Commodity Education Forums for American Indians annually, either in Washington, DC or on-site at Indian Reservations.

“It’s important for us to continue this dialogue,” Avrishon said, “both on behalf of our Indian customers and in support of our USDA agricultural commodities.” •

--Kathryn Mattingly