Low milk prices are a grim reality for dairy producers in the near term, with growing trade and federal action serving as remedies to get farmers through tough times, NMPF economists said in a Dairy Defined Podcast.

“There really is no quick fix to get back into balance,” said Will Loux, Senior Vice President for Global Economic Affairs and the head of the joint economics team for NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “I do think there are real ways that, from the Whole Milk to Healthy Kids Act, to the National Milk Exports and Trade program, to opportunities to beef up Dairy Revenue Protection, to making sure folks are utilizing that program or Dairy Margin Coverage. There are ways to help, I think, mitigate the pain that we see dairy farmers feeling today from a policy perspective.”

Loux is joined in the podcast by Stephen Cain, Vice President for Economic Policy and Market Analysis.

New Dietary Guidelines for Americans are encouraging to dairy in ways that are consistent with the latest science and consumer needs for high-quality, affordable nutrition, NMPF Director of Regulatory Affairs Miquela Hanselman said in a Dairy Defined Podcast.

“We turned out pretty well in the guidelines,” Hanselman said in the podcast released today. “We hit the three servings. Dairy is a distinct group. Full-fat dairy is recommended repeatedly throughout the guidelines, which everyone was very excited to see.”

Hanselman also outlines how these guidelines came to be, and what work remains to be done in the next edition of the twice-a-decade guidelines.

History may not rhyme, but it echoes, and for all the challenges dairy has faced, a few key areas have continued to resurface throughout Chris Galen’s nearly three decades in dairy.

“A lot of what I had worked on at the start of my career, and also now in the last few years of my career at National Milk, has been on milk pricing, in particular federal milk marketing order reforms,” said Galen, NMPF’s longtime communications leader and the current Senior Vice President of Member Services and Governance, in a Dairy Defined podcast. “A lot of what we have to do, has to do with just making certain that farmers are paid fairly.”

Galen reflects on the changes of dairy’s structure in the 21st century, the continued importance of family farms to dairy, and the evolution of media that has made it easier to serve members while getting dairy’s message to a broader audience.