Sustainable dairy farming is all about making continuous improvements to existing farming practices in ways that protect and enhance the natural environment, animal welfare, and local communities, while simultaneously ensuring profitability and providing a high quality of life for farmers and their families.
The Caring Dairy Programme
Launched in Europe in 2003, the Caring Dairy programme is a collaborative effort between Ben & Jerry's, local dairy farmers, dairy supplier Hoogwegt Milk, specialists from Wageningen University University and Research Centre (Wageningen UR), and non-governmental organisations World Wide Fund for Nature and the Netherlands Society for Nature.
The programme focuses on working directly with farmers, developing user-friendly guidelines and assessment tools, and offering advisory support to help farmers make continuous improvements in managing the environmental, social and economic impacts of their dairy operations.
In conceptual terms, sustainable dairy farming is all about
finding the balance between economic viability, social progress,
environmental protection
and animal welfare.
In practical terms, it's all about creating Caring Dairy
connections, getting specialists from Wageningen University and
Research Centre together with individual farmers to conduct a
performance assessment, which measures a farm's level of
sustainability against a comprehensive set of 11 key criteria - or
"Sustainability Indicators" - for dairy farming. Results from
baseline measurements are then used to help farmers develop and
implement individual improvement plans, evaluate results and make
any needed adjustments, in an iterative process of 3 to 4 years. We
will lay down all the learnings of this process in Guidelines for
Sustainable Dairy Farming Practices that will be available for the
sector and everyone who is interested.
Eleven family farmers have enthusiastically agreed to participate in
the programme. We compensate these farmers for the hard work they
put in helping us to develop 'Sustainable Dairy Farming Guidelines'.
To read their stories, click here
To read more about our sustainable dairy farming programmes,
click on links below:
The Caring Dairy approach
The 11 sustainability indicators
Listen to our farmers
Vermont based Dairy Farming Stewardship Alliance
For questions regarding our Caring Dairy programme, please
contact our Environmental Sustainability & Social Mission Manager:
anniek.mauser@benjerry.com.
