Ice cream: It’s the best, right? We love eating it, we love making it, and we love trying to figure out how to ensure that it has as small an impact on the environment as possible.
Which is why we’re so excited about our Low Carbon Dairy project. We’re bringing farmers together with scientists, academics, and other experts to find ways to build healthier soil, raise healthier animals, and mitigate the environmental and climate-related impacts of dairy farming.
And the best news is that it’s already having a big impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions!
The climate crisis is disrupting our world in so many ways. We’re working together with dairy farmers to become part of the solution.
Our Low Carbon Dairy project has 2 big goals:
Seven Caring Dairy farms in the US, and 10 more in the Netherlands, have been working toward lowering their greenhouse gas emissions through this pilot project. Our goal is to incorporate the best practices across the rest of the Caring Dairy farms over the coming years.
We’re so glad you asked!
Our Caring Dairy program has been around since 2006 in Europe and 2011 in America. It includes 174 farms in Europe and 52 in the US. It’s our way of collaborating with farmers (primarily in our home state of Vermont and our neighbor, New York, as well as the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK) to produce the best dairy in the best way possible.
Here’s how it works: Each year, participating farms are third-party audited in the areas of animal care, cropping practices, farmworker pay and conditions (covered by the Milk with Dignity program in the US), and detailed record keeping. If farms meet established standards in those areas (which have an impact on things like milk production, soil health, farmworker health and wellness, and climate resilience), then they can maintain their place in the Caring Dairy program.
What’s in it for the farms, beyond doing good for people and the planet? Moo-lah! In exchange for meeting those standards, they receive additional money, which helps to mitigate the cost of compliance. Pretty sweet!
All 17 Low Carbon Dairy farms were selected from among Caring Dairy farms. These 17 farms decided they wanted to do even more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the farm by focusing on things like:
And guess what? It works! The US Low Carbon Dairy farms have seen a 16% drop in emissions* compared to other Caring Dairy farms. Emissions on Dutch Low Carbon Dairy farms have dropped dramatically as well!
* Measured against Ben & Jerry’s 2015 Caring Dairy baseline emissions.
Four Girls Dairy is a Vermont dairy farm run by Peter Rainville. It was among the first farms selected to join the Low Carbon Dairy project.
Back in 2008, after experiencing some hardships, Four Girls decided to rethink their whole approach to dairy farming. They looked at ways to improve every aspect of their farm, from cow health to energy efficiency. To Four Girls, Low Carbon Dairy felt like a perfect fit.
Four Girls believes that what’s good for the environment and the climate is also good for the farm (and the farmer). Here’s some of what they’ve done as a Ben & Jerry’s Low Carbon Dairy farm.
Planted 31 acres of corn and 142 acres of grass legume, while maintaining 63 acres of forest/unfarmed land
Cover cropped 100% of corn acres with a biodiverse mix of species
Installed a 72 kW rooftop solar array
Installed a robotic feed pusher which increased milk production significantly and decreased emissions through milk efficiency gains
“I believe my dairy is most successful when all aspects of my farm are working in sync—the land, the soil, and the cows. My goal through the Low Carbon Dairy project is ultimately to make farming viable, mitigating environmental impacts, for future generations of farmers.”
—Peter Rainville, Four Girls Dairy
What our Low Carbon Dairy farms are doing gives us so much hope!
Thirteen percent of US Caring Dairy farms have joined the Low Carbon Dairy project. As results continue to show the benefit of this program to farmers and the environment, our big hope is to expand the program to the rest of the farms in our Caring Dairy program in the future.
And the more dairy farms that come on board, the better it’ll be for the climate! Learn more about our impact here.
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