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ARLINGTON, VA – Lower milk prices and higher production costs are leaving many dairy farmers with low—or non-existent—profit margins, making modernization to the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) Program critically important to farmers across the country.

But in some regions, without changes that put dairy farms on sounder financial and competitive footing, dairy itself may not have a future, Florida dairyman Jacob Larson said. Because without policy adjustments that encourage greater profitability, no other changes—not technological advancements, nor new approaches to cow care, or better investments in environmental practices—will matter to a dairy farm’s survival.


“If a farm is profitable, it most likely will continue,” Larson said, calling for a milk-pricing system “that is fair and equitable to the producers, the processors and the consumers.”

“Modernization has been needed for a long time and is overdue for an update.”

For the rest of the Larson Dairy, Inc. story and a deeper look at FMMO in Florida, or to view other stories in our Farmer Focus series, check out NMPF’s Sharing Our Story page.