From left are former Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, Agricultural Marketing Service Administrator Anne Alonzo, Miles McAvoy, head of the USDA organic program, and George Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley. (Richard Bock/Blue Orbit Studio)

Former Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan inadvertently became the hostess of a Capitol Hill party celebrating Senate passage of the farm bill conference report Tuesday evening.

Merrigan, a consultant to Organic Valley, a large agriculture co-op, had arranged a party at The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital to release a study that Washington State University has done on the nutritional benefits of whole milk from grass-fed cows.

But the Senate passed the farm bill conference report only a few hours before the “Grass Up” party featuring “mootinis” was about to begin.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., arrived at the party to announce that as president pro tempore of the Senate he had just signed the conference report, and that the signature of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was already on it.

Other guests at the party included Merrigan’s former colleagues at USDA, other politicians including Rep. Chellier Pingree, D-Maine, and congressional aides.

• Organic Valley — Bringing the Balance: Study Compares Nutritional Benefits of Organic and Conventional Whole Milk
• — (Video) Restoring Balance: The W.S.U. Study
• — Washington State University: Organic Production Enhances Milk Nutritional Quality by Shifting Fatty Acid Composition