Dairy Education Part 2
Dairy Education Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
The Dairy industry has seen a dramatic drop in customer trust over the past several years and the industry decided to do something about it. They have recently launched a new ad campaign designed to get people to their new website and the help the consumer learn more about the dairy industry according to Blair Thompson, Director of Consumer Communications, for the Dairy Farmers of Washington.
THOMPSON: There are basically 4 major drivers of consumer angst as I call it, consumer distrust for dairy, one is the use of RBST better known as bovine growth hormone. This of course is a supplemental hormone that can be given to animals in order to increase their milk production and there’s just a tremendous amount of misunderstanding and confusion about what that product is and what it does and what it entails for dairy products.
The addition of supplements of any type has raised the ire of consumers for years.
THOMPSON: There are other ones as well; there are concerns about various production practices particularly as they relate to animal handling issues. There’s concerns about the environmental impacts of dairy farming amongst some people and some people have concerns about the safety of the product, what’s in the milk, what’s happened to the milk? Is there something I should be concerned about?
Thompson says there is a huge disconnect between the consumer perception and the reality of dairy farming.
THOMPSON: From our perspective it isn’t what’s actually happening in these areas that’s a source of concern it’s simply consumer perception of what’s happening in these areas that drives their concerns and so there’s what we call the dairy disconnect between what we know to be reality and what many people unfortunately perceive to be reality and so really our program is designed to bridge that gap and to help people understand exactly what is going on, on the farm and with the products they consume.
The website AKeyIngredient.com helps consumers understand things like the fact that at least in Washington State 99% of the milk consumed in the state is controlled by two dairy cooperatives who have both banned the use of RBST.
THOMPSON: But the consumer perception is that it’s still threat to them so our program is really design as I said, reveal some of these real facts about dairy and help people to understand that the anxiety that some of them feel really isn’t warranted.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
