FOR FARMERS
In the Federal Order:
Contracting principles: If your processor pools your milk in the federal order, some contracting principles, like timely payments, are already in place. Edge's priorities would add extra protections such as written contracts, required contract termination notice and transparent pricing formulas. Cooperatives and their plants would be exempt.
FMMO Flexibility: Federal Milk Marketing Orders need enhanced flexibility to ensure their long-term viability. As it stands today, enabling legislation limits what proposals can even be considered at a hearing, even if the participants petition for them. Updating this legislation would enable individual orders to consider proposals that would modernize and sustain them for the foreseeable future. Nothing would change in the near term; rather, orders could then consider alternative pricing structures, such as Edge’s “Uniform Benefits” proposal, in a regional hearing.
Outside Federal Order:
Contracting principles: If you are geographically outside an order or your processor is not pooling your milk, there are very few guardrails that must be followed. Our contracting principles would ensure that you have protections such as timely payments, verification of weights and components, and contract termination notices. Cooperatives and their plants would be exempt.
FMMO Flexibility: If you are outside the order, this would not affect you.
FOR PROCESSORS
In the Federal Order:
Contracting principles: If you pool milk in the federal order, you are already subject to several contracting principles, like timely payments. Edge's priorities would require extra protections such as written contracts, required contract termination notice and transparent pricing formulas. Cooperatives and their plants would be exempt.
FMMO Flexibility: Federal Milk Marketing Orders need enhanced flexibility to ensure their long-term viability. As it stands today, enabling legislation limits what proposals can even be considered at a hearing, even if the participants petition for them. Updating this legislation would enable individual orders to consider proposals that would modernize and sustain them for the foreseeable future. Nothing would change in the near term; rather, orders could then consider alternative pricing structures, such as Edge’s “Uniform Benefits” proposal, in a regional hearing.
Outside Federal Order:
Contracting principles: If you are geographically outside an order or your milk is not pooled, very few guardrails must be followed. Our contracting principles would require protections such as timely payments, verification of weights and components and contract termination notices. Cooperatives and their plants would be exempt.
FMMO Flexibility: If you are outside the order, this would not affect you.
FOR FEDERAL ORDERS
Contracting principles:
Neither of Edge’s priorities would change the federal order system in the immediate term. Our contracting principles would not supersede any federal order regulations on payments or verification, making no immediate changes to the federal order system.
FMMO Flexibility:
No immediate changes would be made to the current system. Rather, it would provide more flexibility to allow individual federal orders to call a hearing in their geography and consider implementing a new approach, such as our “uniform benefits” idea. This novel approach doesn’t make sense for every geography and would be thoroughly vetted through a hearing process and approved by producers before implementation.
