Dairy Sustainability

Dairy Sustainability

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Today's consumers, especially millennials, have a microscope on how their food is grown and sourced sustainably. Terms like local, organic and natural dominate the marketplace, but what does it all mean? One of the most tangible examples of sustainability is drastically fewer resources being used. In terms of the dairy industry, since 1944, today's farmers are using just 21 percent of the animals, 35 percent of water and 10 percent of the land required to produce the same amount of milk.

 

This insight was just one of many at the Food Dialogues® held recently at the Dairy Strong conference in Madison, Wis., co-sponsored by U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®) and Dairy Strong. Hundreds of attendees gathered as Michael Specter, a food and science staff writer with The New Yorker, moderated a diverse panel that included a registered dietitian, a food industry sustainability expert, and a fifth-generation dairy farmer, among others, to discuss how consumers and farmers define sustainability and the various methods and technologies used on farms - small and large - to protect the environment.

 

Karianne Fallow, CEO of United Dairymen of Idaho “The White House formally cited the work for the Innovation Center for US Dairy because their work in sustainability has been so progressive. For example, the recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus, valuable soil nutrients, that all has the potential to make these systems revenue enhancing for dairy farms of all sizes. It really has the potential to be a win-win.

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