Consumer Outreach Boosts Trust in Dairy

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

With milk consumption declining over the past decade, dairy producers are looking for ways to rebuild consumer demand. Jennifer Glover, co-owner of Mountain Fresh Creamery, says giving consumers a firsthand look at modern dairy farming has helped them rebuild confidence in their dairy products and encourage more milk consumption.

Glover… “ It really came after because so many people would want to say, ‘Hey, can I come and see where my milk comes from?’ And so when we built the new dairy in 2014, we built it with that in mind. So we built a room where people can see from the room into the parlor and watch the cows being milked. They can see into the tank room so we can talk to them about milk quality—how milk is one of the only foods that never touches human hands, so it's the safest food you can consume. When people come to our farm, they get a sample of whole milk, they get a sample of chocolate milk, and they get a scoop of ice cream. It's more to my husband and myself, it's more of we feel like it's an education piece that we owe consumers. We're losing milk drinkers every day. We have since the 1970s when we got things like bottled water and Coca-Cola and flavored water and different things like that—we're losing milk drinkers. And so if we can get people out on our farm and really taste what real milk tastes like, and let them see how we treat our cows, talk to them about the benefits of milk, I feel like we're gonna gain some milk drinkers back in our world.”

Learn more about Glover’s operation at mountainfreshcreamery.com.