Dairy

The following links serve as a companion to The 2050 Criteria, providing additional data, information, tools, and resources on the dairy sector. For context and more complete guidance, download the full report.

Data & Information

• Current environmental efforts and best practices in the U.S. dairy industry are housed by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
• In particular, the industry’s Fluid Milk Carbon Footprint Study performed a complete carbon footprint on U.S. dairy production to calculate greenhouse gas emissions at each stage of the value chain.
• European efforts to improve dairy industry sustainability are led in part by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) which published Principles and Practices for Sustainable Dairy Farming in 2009.
• The Global Dairy Agenda for Action’s ‘Green Paper’ catalogues 403 initiatives illustrating the continuous improvements and sustainability efforts already made and in progress along the dairy supply chain.
• The International Dairy Federation regularly publishes bulletins on issues of concern to dairy sustainability.
• Fonterra, the world’s largest exporter of dairy products, publishes reports on its own sustainability measures and evaluations of company environmental metrics.

Evaluation & Certification

• The IFC’s Good Practice Note on Animal Welfare in Livestock Production addresses risks, reasoning, and guidance for assessing animal welfare in horticultural production systems.
• Additionally, the Innovation Center is working with stakeholders from along the dairy value chain and beyond to define a set of indicators and metrics for the industry.
• The Vital Capital Index, which was produced by Manomet with support from the Innovation Center for US Dairy, consists of 40 field-tested, science-based, practical indicators for on farm. This tool can also be found on SAI Platform’s website.
• The FARM program is a nation-wide, verifiable program in the U.S. that addresses animal well-being and has its own indicators specifically addressing this issue.