Award to recognize conservation on dairy farms

Monday, November 21, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Dairy farmers can earn some dough by being green.

The winner of a new award being launched by Dairy Farmers of Canada this year will receive $2,000, a trophy and a trip to collect their prize in person at the Dairy Farmers’ annual general meeting in St. John’s, Newfoundland next July.

The Dairy Farm Sustainability Award will recognize Canadian dairy farmers who have adopted on-farm management practices that go beyond standard industry measures and meet objectives set out in Dairy Farmers sustainability strategy to:

•    reduce greenhouse gas emissions from dairy farms;
•    promote the efficient and sustainable management of natural resources; and
•    benchmark the socio-economic performance of Canadian dairy farms.

One winner will be selected from among four regional runner-up finalists. They will come from four regions – the western provinces, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. The three runner-up finalists will each receive $1,000.

Dairy Farmers spokesperson Therese Beaulieu says the organization launched the award to build on work it’s doing as part of a sustainability development strategy that was started in 2010. The dairy industry internationally is very much interested in sustainable development too “so obviously we didn’t want to miss the boat.”

Farmers have said they already do a lot to protect the environment “so we decided to create this award to be able to get information on what farmers are doing and find a concrete way to recognize people who are going a great job,” she says.

The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2012. Rules and submission guidelines are available of Dairy Farmers website.

Beaulieu says the panel of judges hasn’t been selected yet but they will be academics, government officials and environmental organization representatives. BF