Brussels/Chicago - January 16, 2019. The dairy sector welcomes discussion on Sustainable Food Systems. Recently, a group of scientists and interested citizens came together to form the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health, an international panel seeking consensus on a roadmap for sustainable food systems.

Humankind’s gift of gab is not set in stone, and farming could help to explain why.

Despite growing beef cattle inventories since 2014, dairy animals have been a stable source of beef and continue to play a key role in filling U.S. beef demand.

Europe’s animal farming sector has exceeded safe bounds for greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient flows and biodiversity loss, and urgently needs to be scaled back, according to a major report.

For years, experts have recommended low-fat dairy products over the full-fat versions, which are higher in calories and contain more saturated fat.

Milk and dairy deserve a place in a sustainable diet and should be consumed more often than currently, health experts say.

Aarhus University in Foulum leads a new and exciting project which is to form the basis for producing sustainable milk in the laboratory as an alternative to cow’s milk. The project is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

No cows needed for this milk. But we’re not taking about products such as almond milk or soy milk. We’re talking about actual milk complete with dairy proteins. But not a cow in sight.

On South Africa’s Lancewood dairy farm, a GPS-guided tractor spreads cow manure across defined areas where tilling is banned and fertilizer used at a minimum, if at all.

Plant-based dairy alternatives are steadily gaining ground in supermarkets and the on-trade. With an expected market growth of 12% per year on average towards 2027, this trend looks set to continue in the near future.

Lab-grown meat is getting a lot of attention along with plant-based meat substitutes.

Lely’s Exos, a system for the fully autonomous harvesting and feeding of fresh grass, will be commercially available from mid-2024. The system allows dairy farmers to use a large part of their grassland production as fresh feed.

“Milk producers” are milk farmers. “Milk processors” buy milk from producers and process it for the retail market.

Imagine a house is on fire, and someone is actively pouring gas on the fire. They then pour a little less gas and want credit for doing so, despite still feeding the fire. Perhaps they claim they are now “fire neutral”.

The US Department of Agriculture recently released its latest report on dairy production in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and the trends driving trading.

The demand for milk proteins and milk components is growing globally like never before.