Dairy supply chains sharpen focus on sustainability in dairy farms

Everybody in the dairy supply chain nowadays talks about “sustainability”. But as there are many definitions it is not always clear what they are exactly talking about. Do they consider all three pillars (economic, ecological and social sustainability)? Which production steps do they take into account?

In the past, sustainability in dairy supply chains focused mainly on the processing sector as used resources were easy to measure and rather easy to influence. In order to become more sustainable dairy processors for example reduced use of water or electricity, invested in the training of their staff or took other measures.

But looking at the dairy products, the main impact on sustainability comes from the dairy farms themselves. Therefore, some processors in Europe started to include them into their sustainability programmes. This is a great challenge as the diversity of dairy farms and indicators to measure are so immense that it is difficult to reduce the complexity to communicable messages.

If you are more interested in the programmes have a look for example at Friesland Campina with “foqus planet” or Arla with “Arlagården”. Also Ben & Jerry’s and Cono Caasmakers implemented with “Caring Dairy” sustainability programmes at the primary sector.

In 2013 a big project on sustainability in dairy farms started in Lower Saxony, Germany. agri benchmark together with organizations from the livestock sector and dairy processors developed a tool to measure basic indicators directly on the farms. Questions are easy and quick to answer so that many farmers participated.

First survey results are just being analysed and will be presented by end of February 2014. More regions will join in 2014 for the next survey. Interested?

Then keep track on the agri benchmark dairy homepage!