Late last week, the executive director of Florida’s Tea Party Command sent a letter to all members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction as well as other key members of the House and Senate opposing the Dairy Security Act and calling for the elimination of the Federal Milk Marketing Order system.

“The federal government’s over-regulation of milk and interference in the free market with respect to milk as a commodity is unparalleled,” said the letter from Vice Chair and Executive Director Donald H. Tiller III. “Over the next 10 years, the FMMO system will cost taxpayers billions of dollars and the losses to businesses involved in the handling of milk since its passage is immeasurable.”

In a separate note to IDFA, Tiller wrote, “We have been in contact with industry groups as well as some of the industry's leading businesses over the past year. The elimination of the FMMO system and opposition to all supply controls is in furtherance of the tea party movement's core values of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.” 

Tiller is a third-generation member of a dairy processor family. The Tea Party Command is an umbrella group for tea party organizations and coordinates activities with over 3,000 tea party organizations nationwide.  

IDFA President and CEO Connie Tipton wrote in a recent Dairy Foods column that  “eliminating federal pricing is not about helping or hurting dairy farmers. It's about creating a successful market situation for milk and other dairy products, so that all segments of the industry have the opportunity for success," she said. Tipton explains that having the right dairy policies in place would remove impediments to the opportunity for success.