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Dairy Council of California, Lets eat healthy movement

Alignment with SDGs

AUTHOR

Dr Jamie Jonker US - IDF • United States of America

Lets eat healthy movement

In June, Dairy Council of California launched Let’s Eat Healthy, a movement that brings together multisector stakeholders to coordinate, collaborate and co-create to help ensure children and families are supported to grow healthfully and find realistic solutions to address disparities in access to education and high quality, wholesome foods—two areas that can impact lifelong health and success. Through shared values, the movement aims to empower stakeholders to champion community health through nutrition, provide resources to inspire and enable healthy eating habits, and find solutions and actions to make nutritious foods, including milk and dairy, accessible and affordable to all of our diverse communities.

Nutrition education and access to nutritious foods are essential to helping children and families develop healthy eating habits that last a lifetime. Under Let’s Eat Healthy, in February, Dairy Council of California proudly launched Well-Nourished, Brighter Futures, a statewide initiative that brings together a diverse group of influential stakeholders in health, education and policy to elevate and find solutions to support children’s health and nutrition equity. With Dairy Council of California serving as the convener, Well-Nourished, Brighter Futures has already held multi-disciplinary stakeholder convening aimed at advancing its purpose—improving nutrition equity
for children.

CA Dairy Sustainability Summit

 (Goal 2: Zero Hunger, Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being, Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption, Goal 13: Climate Action) California’s dairy farmers are leading change and making significant progress in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and advancing planet-smart, sustainable farming practices. On November 5-6, 2020, the California Dairy Sustainability Summit brought together dairy farmers, industry leaders, government officials, leading researchers, technology providers, and sustainable food, consumer and nutrition experts to showcase innovative, planet-smart dairy farming practices, key learnings and opportunities for the dairy community, and the important role dairy plays in nourishing people during a two-day virtual conference.

Hosted by Dairy Cares in partnership with California Dairy Research Foundation, California Milk Advisory Board, California Dairy Quality Assurance Program and Dairy Council of California, the Summit was highly successful, with 900+ registrants confirmed and more than 600 attendees participating in the virtual sessions. The sessions were hosted by experts via panel discussions and keynote presentations, with speakers highlighting accomplishments and opportunities to further improve the sustainability of family dairy farms and dairy foods across the entire supply chain. “The Future of our Food System,” a session presented by Dairy Council of CA, illustrated why the lens of sustainable nutrition is so important in advancing the critical role of nutrient[1]dense milk and dairy foods in an equitable, culturally diverse, climate friendly and health promoting food systems. Other sessions were led by subject matter experts who shared vision for sustainability, focusing on employees (both on farms and within processing facilities), animal welfare, the environment, economic viability, and nutrition.

Dairy Declaration case examples from US-IDF
(Author Land O Lakes)

Dairy Nourishes Africa project (SDG 2: Hunger) Dairy Nourishes Africa project:

 

Dairy 2025 Commitment (SDG 12: Responsible Production and Consumption

  • Land O’Lakes just publicly launched the Dairy 2025 Commitment. Here is the link to the press release
  • ARDEN HILLS, MINN. (March 11, 2021) – Land O’Lakes, Inc. today announced new on-farm sustainability commitments to be adopted by its more than 1,600 member-dairy farms by 2025. Within the next four years, all Land O’Lakes’ dairy farmer-owners will complete an intensive, industry-leading on-farm sustainability assessment aligned with the U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment while maintaining universal compliance with the National Milk Producers Federation’s National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) program. This announcement is the next step in Land O’Lakes’ enterprise-wide approach to on-farm sustainability.

 TruCarbon™ program (SDG 13: Climate Action)

In early 2021, Truterra, LLC, a division of Land O’Lakes, Inc., launched its innovative TruCarbon™ program to help unlock the supply of soil-generated carbon credits to meet rapidly growing demand.

Here’s a link for more information:

  • https://www.landolakesinc.com/Blog/February-2021/first-ever-farmer-owned-carbon-marketplace 
  •  TruCarbon encourages greater adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices by rewarding farmers who practice them while making the carbon market process less cumbersome and more transparent. The initial TruCarbon offer featured Microsoft as the first buyer of carbon credits. More than 1,200 farmers expressed interest in the program, as well as interest in participating in future carbon-market-related initiatives.

About Land O'Lakes, Inc.

Land O’Lakes, Inc., one of America’s premier agribusiness and food companies, is a member owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. With 2020 annual sales of $14 billion, Land O’Lakes is one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, ranking 232 on the Fortune 500. Building on a legacy of more than 99 years of operation, Land O’Lakes today operates some of the most respected brands in agribusiness and food production including Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Purina Animal Nutrition, WinField United and Truterra. The company does business in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. Land O’Lakes, Inc. corporate headquarters are located in Arden Hills, Minnesota.