Each year with Earth Day, we get the opportunity to reflect on the improvements our dairy farmer member-owners make on their farms that benefit all of us. With the support of our corporate partners and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, our members’ commitment to sustainable improvements goes well beyond a single day though. With these pioneering partnerships, our cooperative has directed more than $77 million to our member farms to forge sustainable communities, demonstrating that dedication through action.
Our commitment is evident in the substantial improvements in metrics across the our cooperative. Last year, the FARM environmental sustainability tool found that Maryland & Virginia farms emitted 16.8% less than the national average between January 2023 and January 2024
This progress underscores the dedication our members have to enhancing milk production efficiency, a testament to the hard work and innovation of the industry.
“It starts with the farmer,” said MDVA member Molly Elgin McWilliams. “And so when our farmers can say, ‘hey, this is what we’re doing, we have these practices in place,’ it puts our best foot forward.”
Thanks to increasingly modern and innovative dairy farming practices, the environmental impact of producing a gallon of milk in 2017 shrunk significantly, requiring 30% less water, 21% less land and a 19% smaller carbon footprint than it did in 2007. That’s the same as the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by half a million acres of U.S. forest.
We’re proud of our members for being leaders in the field. That they are leading the efforts to be more sustainable is proof that farmers are some of the most forward-thinking and progressive groups out there when it comes to being caretakers of our planet.
