Dairy world

Milk is nature’s wonder beverage. It builds strong bones. It lowers blood pressure. It reduces the risk of diabetes and some cancers. It’s helpful for maintaining a healthy weight. It is both tasty and satisfying. Milk has no equal in providing major health benefits. It’s a powerful package of goodness, containing such important nutrients as calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, high-quality protein and Vitamins A and D.

As part of a development education/awareness programme in Europe, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) Europa and its partners recently carried out a study on the importance of Small Scale Livestock Farming in the context of climate variability. Part of a ‘campaign’ to sensitize and mobilize people in favour of small scale livestock farming, the study “shows that small scale livestock farming has a potential to cope with and adapt to climatic variability, especially in some determined regions in the world. Moreover, due to its specific functions, small scale livestock farming can also be considered as an important way to mitigate carbon emissions from livestock sector.”

Milk production needs to increase 200 million tons in the next 15 years, from 700 million in 2010 to 900 million by 2025, if we are to meet the demands of the forecasted 7.8 billion people, according to Torsten Hemme from IFCN. But we must not forget that in the past 15 years milk production increased 170 million tons, and 62% of this milk came from Asia.

Milk production in the EU, New Zealand and the Americas for January to October 2011 has increased between +0.53% (Australia) and +18.03% (Uruguay) compared to the same period last year. No increase in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states due to high costs.Source: CLAL.it

If you missed the webinar with Dr Frank Mitloehner from UC Davis and John Fiscalini, dairy farmer from California, where they discussed dairy farming, climate change and air quality, you can still view it online and their presentations can be downloaded.

Few people today have a connection to food and milk production, and they know little about how milk is produced. To resolve this, several programs have been launched to help dairy producers communicate with consumers and the media about modern dairy farming.

The dairy industry needs a common language and standard methods and tools to be able to accurately measure dairy's carbon footprint and move forward. Many of these tools and methods are already available. The progress of the dairy industy's work on climate changes issues were presented at the International Dairy Federation's World Dairy Summit in New Zealand.