5-6 IAN Dairy Sustainability

 US Dairy award winners exemplify the dairy industry’s long-standing commitment to stewardship and sustainability.

The second annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards winners were recently announced by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy® at a special ceremony in Washington, D.C. The program recognizes dairy farms and businesses of all sizes for practices that advance the industry’s commitment to healthy products, healthy communities and a healthy planet. Steve and Stacie Ballard of Ballard Family Dairy & Cheese won the award and I called Cheri Chase
Communications Director for the Idaho Dairy Products Commission to ask about sustainability as it relates to the dairy industry: “ The past several years, consumers are more and more interested about where their food is coming from and how it is produced and dairy farmers are the creators of sustainability in terms of always looking for ways to make their dairies more efficient so it is about efficiency and making sure that the land is protected for future generations and about doing things the right way and dairy farmers excel at that. Isn’t it true that  dairy  farmers are stewards of the land? Absolutely. They are the original stewards of the land. Without the land, they are not going to have a farm to create the dairy products that are created every day for people to enjoy. It is their priority to make sure that the land is taken care of.