An analysis of how the organic dairy commodity chain in the Northeast United States is structured uncovers significant power asymmetries and conflicting tendencies regarding the treadmill of production in organic dairy farming, distribution, and marketing, thus calling into the question the capacity of the state to simultaneously promote markets and transform agriculture in the direction of ecological sustainability. While organic certification has contributed to highly centralized business structures and more advanced processing technology at the distribution and marketing levels, it has also fostered significant changes in farming practices that represent a shift away from intensification and industrialization of agriculture. The standards governing organic dairy production require a slowing down of bovine metabolism and an overall reduction in material throughput, even as the economic system flowing from this regulatory regime has led to changes in milk processing, distribution, and economic control that constitute an acceleration of the treadmill of production.