Reducing the Dairy Sector’s Environmental Footprint

Since 2001 when the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) initiated World Milk Day, June 1st has become a global day to highlight the importance of dairy. The goal of World Milk Day is to raise public awareness about the importance of milk for enjoyment, nutrition, livelihoods and sustainability. Dairy provides key nutrients for growth especially in children. It also provides 1 billion people with direct and indirect jobs. Moreover, the global dairy sector has joined forces to reduce the sector’s emissions. This year, we invite everyone to join us in supporting climate change action in the industry.

The World Milk Day campaign in 2021 is evidence that dairy plays a key role in people’s lives. The hashtag #WorldMilkDay featured in nearly 200,000 posts which received over 369 million impressions. Over 1.38 billion impressions were generated by the global campaign (which included #WorldMilkDay, #EnjoyDairy, as well as 17 translations and local hashtags). In response to growing food demands, the dairy sector is optimizing production to meet consumer needs more efficiently. This means producing a glass of milk now results in 11% less greenhouse gas emissions but we won’t stop there.

The 2022 World Milk Day theme will emphasize the work being done to accelerate climate action and help minimize the sector’s impact on the earth, building on the work that the Global Dairy Platform is already doing for the Pathways to Dairy Net Zero. Almost 100 organizations representing more than 30% of global milk production have already declared their support for the initiative. Under the leadership of the Global Dairy Platform, World Milk Day 2022 will serve as a forum to raise awareness of the Dairy Net Zero messaging and action and gather more momentum.

Emerging ag inc, as coordinator of this social media campaign on behalf of the Global Dairy Platform, looks forward to seeing the #WorldMilkDay campaign dominate social media platforms again this year as we kick it off with the “Enjoy Dairy Rally” from May 29 – 31. We would like to ask our dairy enthusiasts to kindly share a simple video about sustainable dairy, highlighting the innovation and technology in place to reduce our environmental footprint. These videos can be shared on social media with the hashtags #WorldMilkDay and #EnjoyDairy. Check out this year’s videos from dairy farmers on the Global Dairy Platform’s YouTube page.

How else can I share my World Milk Day campaign with the rest of the world?

• Host an event: Register your event on the World Milk Day website and share photos or videos of the event on your social media platforms with #WorldMilkDay and #EnjoyDairy
• Capturing images of your celebration: Take pictures of people drinking milk and raising their glasses, post them on social media with #WorldMilkDay and #EnjoyDairy and email them to us (milkday@emergingag.com) 
• Write about your celebration: You can write a blog post before and after the celebration sharing why you are involved in celebrating World Milk Day. 
• Recording your celebration: Any type of video content (edited and non-edited) showing how you are celebrating can be posted on social media using #WorldMilkDay, or sent to us to be uploaded on our Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram accounts.

Join us from May 29- June 1 to say cheers to a greener dairy industry. Happy World Milk Day in advance!