Transitioning From Unsustainable To Sustainable Food Production: A Study On The Dairy Industry Practices Essay.

The objective of this study analyses on the transition of unsustainable to sustainable food production. Sustainable production of food encompasses economic, social and ecological contemplation that includes infrastructure, reduction of waste, storage and preservation of water in order to achieve security in global food. Unsustainable food production occurs when the farmers donot have ability in maintaining existing trees and hence uses new farmland for manufacturing commodities. The framers use pesticides in order to control pest in the crops and kill microbes that actually facilitates food production. This in turn damages the health of human being and adversely affects the growth of other crops (Van Passeland Meul 2012). Nowadays foods are produced through transition of unsustainable to sustainable process. Owing to this, the foods are being raised that are healthy for the consumers. The past as well as present practices that both developing and developed nations follow for the dairy industry is mainly highlighted in this study. The example in relation to the practices followed in the dairy industry for producing dairy products is also explained in this study. In addition, this report also elucidates on the best sustainable farming practices followed by this particular industry. The issues around sustainability of this dairy production in better way are also discussed in this paper.

A dairy is actually the business enterprise that is mainly concerned with processing milk of animals for consumption of humans. The formation of this dairy industry differs between the developed and developing countries. In the developing nations, the current practices that this industry follows for production of dairy product has changed in rapid way. The development that occurred in this dairy industry in developing nations over the past few years involves- huge foreign investment and increasing role of dairy cooperatives. In few economies namely United States, Australia and Europe the dairy processing has become highly concentrated with lesser but bigger efficient technology that is being operated by fewer laborers. In addition, the dairy industry plays crucial role in human’s health. As people consume dairy products, the food- borne diseases that originate from the dairy animals adversely impact on human’s health. Moreover, antibiotic intake by dairy animals has contribution in anti-microbial resistance in people. This dairy industry mainly based on the natural resources that includes water, land, energy and nutrients. All these resources are required for feeding the dairy animals for receiving good quality raw milk and dairy products. Moreover, the dairy herd has huge contribution to greenhouse gas emissions with the help of rumination. In fact, this industry indirectly as well as directly supports the farmer’s livelihoods. This means that this sector offers huge employment opportunities to these farmers, which in turn reduces the poverty level of the farmers. It also promotes sustainable pattern of production as well as consumption for combating change in climate.

Example relating sustainable practices of dairy industry

Dairying has been the integral part of each agricultural system. Most of the developed nations have integrated policies that laid importance on the dairy industry development. However, these policies guarantee high prices to the farmers, which results in excess production of milk that is being processed for manufacturing dairy products (Mc Geoug 2012). It has been noted from the recent study that near about three fourth of the dairy products has been contributed by these developed nations. The excess production of dairy goods in the developed nations enabled them in gaining international channel in trade. In developed economies, the framework of this industry has evolved owing to rise in production efficiency. The implementation of management practices followed by the developed nations encourages huge productivity. In the past practices, most of the dairy animals were kept in stall-barn facilities that have been designed for maximizing comfort of the operator. At present practices, free -stall facilities has been built for maximizing natural ventilation as well as comfort of animals. In past practices, barns were usually kept in sheltered place while in current practices they are kept in the open area or hilltops in order to ensure sufficient airflow. In addition, other dairy practices that the developed nations follow at present involves-

• Preventing the entry of disease in the farm- The dairy animals are bought knowing their health status and ensures that the transport of animals does not brings in diseases (Zonderland-Thomasse and Ledgard 2012). They also monitor risk of disease that comes from the neighboring nations. These countries also introduce vermin control program and uses clean instrument in order to prevent entry of disease in the dairy farm.
• They introduces effective program for health care of animals and applies veterinary medicines in the dairy animals.
• They secure animal feed and supply of water from the sustainable systems. Moreover, the farm inputs are sourced from the suppliers adopting sustainable systems (Regulations 2013). The workers of the dairy farms implement different equipments in feeding stuffs and uses approved chemicals for treatment of feeding animals.
• These developed nation’s implements environmentally sustainable system in dairy farming. In fact, the farm reduces environmental pollutants production from the dairy farming. The practices also involve proper utilization of energy resources in appropriate way.  It also includes biodiversity motivation on the dairy farm.  
• It also ensures that the practices in dairy farm does not negatively influence on the environment. The application of veterinary chemicals as well as fertilizers appropriately also helps in avoiding contamination of the environment. The practices also ensure that overall dairy operation has been appropriate in producing good quality foods.

The past practices of dairy industry in the developing nations have changed over the last few years. The practices mainly changed since PACS collaborates with the workers of the dairy industry in developing countries (Marsden and Morley 2012). Previously, the workers of the dairy farms did not maintain cattle but now implementation of PACS dairy livelihood framework has given the workers training on cattle maintenance. The past practices does not include automation technology for producing milk or dairy products but at present adoption of new technologies and intervention of pharmaceutical facilitates in improving treatment success and reducing diseases of the dairy animals. The present technology that dairy industry of the developing nations implements includes-

• Monitoring of milk components
• Pedometers
• Devices for recording automatic temperature
• Indicators for milk conductivity
• Body weight measurements
• Detection monitor for automatic estrus

However, the benefits that the dairy industry gains from adoption of new technologies that includes-

• Reduces cost of dairy products
• Increases efficiency in manufacturing food production
• Improves quality of the dairy products
• Reduces adverse environmental affects
• Improves health of animals

Nowadays, the dairy industry has been growing very fast in developing countries owing to implementation of these technologies. Moreover, adoption of technologies improves production of dairy products that in turn maximizes profitability level of the dairy industry. It has been opined by Faye and Konuspayeva (2012), the dairy industry of both the developed and developing nations has introduced new practices in current year in order to make the dairy operations efficient.

One example from developed and developing countries that supports unsustainable and sustainable transitions

Rising biodiversity directly influences the dairy farms in both the developed and developing countries. In Netherland, two-thirds of land has been utilized for dairy farming that in turn makes this industry the biggest consumer of farmland (Herrero and Thornton 2013). This however means that the method by which the dairy industry of Netherland treats their landscape affects both the flora and fauna habitat. In addition, dairy workers mainly depend on the natural resources that include fertile soil, availability of minerals and water. However, this nation’s dairy farming with nature helps in protecting capital that is essential for the future of this farm and decreases dependence on inputs that includes fertilizers and pesticides.

Soil health has huge significance in dairy industry, as the dairy farmers need soil in growing food for feeding dairy animals (Gourley 2012). In British Columbia, the dairy farmers adopts following methods for addressing soil conservation that includes-

• Conservation Tilling- By decreasing tillage before plantation of trees, debris of crops provides nutrients that aids in maintaining health of soil. However, this method helps in keeping the soil intact and decreases emissions by carbon locking.
• Agro forestry-Agro forestry refers to plantation of trees around pastures that facilitates in providing extra soil protection. With the help of this method, the dairy industry benefits from additional shade of dairy animals.

The dairy industry in Ireland benefits from input use efficiency that includes fertilizers, pesticides, water etc. It also improves sustainability of their dairy farms, which in turn increases the profitability level of these farms (Svensson and Wagner 2012). The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) benefits the dairy farms as it suppresses or keeping insects out of barns.  Therefore, Irish dairy industry monitors and identifies pests through programs, which in turn improves the quality of dairy products.

The adoption of biotechnology in Australia’s dairy industry enhances international competitiveness and improves productivity as well as quality of dairy products (Palhares and Pezzopane 2015). The genetic techniques help in reducing bacteria and hence are most vital for this industry. In California dairy industry, the dairy producers inject recombinant Bovine somatotropin (rbST) to the dairy animals for increasing milk production. As a result, the total productivity of dairy products increased owing to adoption of this biotechnology in the dairy production. Though it raised the productivity of milk and dairy products, it adversely affected the health of the dairy animals.

Both the developed as well as developing nations chooses to make transition from unsustainable to sustainable dairy farming practices in order to improve quality of dairy products. With the rise in demand for dairy products, there has been huge pressure on the natural resources that includes freshwater, trees, plants etc. The reason behind this is that these natural resources are mainly used for feeding dairy animals in order to keep them healthy (Gliessman 2014). This helps the dairy producers in getting good quality raw milk from which the dairy products are produced. The dairy farmers, producers and stakeholders work together in conserving as well as protecting the natural resources. Unsustainable  farming means poor utilization of fertilizers in plants, which leads to degradation of water resources and this in turn indirectly affects the health of dairy animals. In addition, injection of pesticides and other chemicals in plants creates diseases in animals and hence injections are given to these animals in order to receive germ free raw milk. The production of milk affects the environment in different ways and hence the scale of this affect mainly depends on the dairy farmer’s practices as well as feed growers (Herrero and Thornton 2013).  However, unsustainable dairy farming as well as feed production leads to loss of vital ecological places that includes prairies, forests, wetlands etc.

In some of the developed countries such as US and Australia, the dairy industries have made transition from unsustainable to sustainable dairy farming. The dairy industry in Australia has developed sustainability framework for improving well being of dairy animals and declining environmental affect. This sustainability framework also aims in –

• Enhancing the livelihoods in the nation
• Reducing the environmental influence in the dairy industry
• Improving community

The initiatives taken by the representatives as well as stakeholders in order to implement the sustainability framework in the dairy industry of this country includes-

• Focus Farms- The dairy industry of this nation established Focus farms network in order to support the decision making of the farmers. It also helps the producers to track real farms decisions under certain conditions for a period of two year, which provides insight into affect of these decisions. Additionally, the focus farms also allow conversation about these factors that influences decision at certain time period, which includes seasonal and conditions in market (Douphrate et al. 2013). These Focus Farms are mainly located around several regions of this country and utilizes huge variety of production systems. However, every farm of Australia is involved in this project for a period of two years. During this period, other farmers monitor the progress of the farmers working in this project.
• The dairy industry also implemented new technology in order to enhance their operations in production of dairy foods. The introduction of web based instrument known as Dairy Base enables the farmers in this industry in measuring and comparing their business performance during this period (Zehetmeier et al.2012). Moreover, it also enables the dairy workers in identifying the opportunities that comes in the business, which in other way drives more profit and declines risk in business. It also facilitates in generating comparative analysis with respect to the size of farm, region and the production method.

In developing countries, innovation plays a significant role in transition from unsustainable to sustainable production of dairy products. Innovation of new technology or equipment in  the dairy industry facilitates the dairy producers in producing the product in less time (Faye and Konuspayeva 2012). However, the dairy farmers in Kenya innovates new product by implementing biotechnology. Still several problems confront sustainable method of dairy production. The problems that occurs are-

• Variation in agro-climatic condition
• Differences in socio-economic and people cultural background
• Wide variation in biodiversity as well as ecology
• Various types of dairy livestock that is reared.

• Care of dairy animals- In past, the dairy farmers uses unsustainable means of producing dairy products (Acosta-Alba et al.2012). This means that they did not consider climate, soil, disease resistance and pests and other environmental conditions before choosing the animal for breeding. Moreover, these nation has built infrastructure for protecting the dairy animals from bad climatic conditions. In addition, they have developed effective programs for regularly checking their symptoms of disease and inject antibiotics for keeping these animals healthy.
• Energy care- Although the operations of dairy production do not require energy intensive activities, there is indeed a requirement of electric power as well as heating. The producers of this nations dairy industry uses diesel generators in the dairy operations. Another alternative element that these dairy farmers utilize in producing dairy products is biodiesel.
• Decreasing carbon footprint from the dairy farming- The dairy industry of this nation implements his strategy with the help of carbon assessments. Through their efficient farm management, this industry applies this action in order to maximize profitability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Eshel et al.2014).

Therefore, it can be noted from the above study that dairy farmers in both the developed and developing nations adopts sustainable farming in order to ensure that good quality raw milk and dairy products are achieved that can satisfy the requirements off customers of the respective country.

According to my opinion, the best sustainable dairy farming practices can enhance the dairy industry in the global market. The future of dairy industry mainly depends on reduction of environment footprint (Garnett 2013). As consumption of energy influences the bottom line of the dairy farm, the dairy farmers should strategically manage utilization of energy for reducing on- farm cost and price volatility. The method of energy reduction must be specific to each dairy operation and hence advancement of technologies including LED lighting, proper ventilation and efficient milk chillers will help in reducing the risk of unstable energy prices. However, it can be predicted that it will facilitate in increasing the revenue of the dairy farm. In addition, there will be rising opportunities to buy energy from the renewable sources or produce on-farm energy from solar power.

Another sustainable practice that dairy farmers must apply is to properly utilize water resources in the dairy operation. The workers of the dairy farms must reduce the utilization of water as it helps them in providing them with proper information as well as options of risk management. However, efficient management of dairy industry will aid in measuring on-farm utilization of water. Additionally, the utilization of improved technologies and energy practices can be considered as the best sustainable farming practices for this industry (Augustin et al. 2013). This however will directly decrease the operational cost of the dairy farm. Also, it can be predicted that good performance of energy can be the best strategy for decreasing CHG emission.

Furthermore, optimization of material efficiency as well as effort for resource recovery will facilitate the farm in extracting maximum practical advantage from the dairy products (García-Peniche et al. 2012). The options of resource recovery that includes recycled packaging, repurposed organic waste and reutilization of wastewater will help in reducing waste and provide opportunities of utilizing of by-products.

My vision about the future of this dairy industry is that sustainable dairy farming practices will expand this industry. There are some vital points that the dairy industry must focus on as my prediction is that it will improve dairy operations. These includes-

• The dairy management must be highly efficient
• Reducing utilization of antibiotics
• Addition of lactations for each animals
• Irrigation as well as storage of water will help this dairy sector grow in more sustainable way
• Innovation of new technologies as well as business models will facilitate in reducing environmental impacts

My vision about this industry is that over the next few years this sector will have huge opportunity as the markets as well as economic power will shift to their benefit. As the demand for dairy products has been increasing for the past few years, it can be forecasted that demand will increase in faster way than supply. This in turn will increase the price of dairy products and as populations increase , the consumption of these dairy products will also increase. In addition, the sustainable dairy production will be more competitive in the global market. This will also helps some of the dairy farms in both developed and developing nations to attain competitive advantage over other industry. It can be forecasted that these dairy farms can attain competitive advantage from several factors that includes-

• Low cost system of dairy farming
• Skilled farm managers and workers
• Efficient utilization of natural resources for feeding animals
• Export  orientation
• Attainment of reputation for good quality product

Working in collaboration with the stakeholders will improve the financial performance of the dairy farms in this industry. Further policy making and investment in more research will help the industry in decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions in efficient way.  

The various issues that the dairy industry faces around sustainability of dairy farming includes-

• Dairy animals health as well as welfare
• Climatic variation that includes water scarcity
• Health of human and nutrition
• Industrial profitability that includes ethical investment

The regions are changing owing to dairy conversion and waterways are putting huge pressure on the dairy farmers. In fact, another issue that this industry faces is food sovereignty. This means that as the dairy farms increase in size and exports their dairy products without selling it in the local market, then the cultural identity of the dairy farm within the respective community is being lost. In addition, the issue of intensification as well as free trade will occur during the practice of sustainable dairy farming.

Conclusion

The dairy sector has been continuously improving as the shareholders makes investment in research on sustainable dairy production. Both the developed and developing countries makes different strategy regarding sustainability practices in dairy production. For ensuring  sustainability , the present production system should evolve into high resource, which includes close attention to comfort and welfare of dairy animals. This system needs skilled dairy workers and farmers and hence they should be trained  in proper way so that they help the farm achieve the objective. The above study also highlights that sustainable dairy produce is a unique method through which it ads in reducing the farms environmental footprint and improve production of raw milk. It however maximizes farms’ profitability and improves people’s as well as animals well being involved in the dairy operation. Moreover, advancement of new technology and workers services helps the farms in enhancing resource efficiency on it.  However, partnerships between stakeholders, food processors, farmers and retailers enhance efficiency in the business operation. The reutilization of water, energy efficient light and other practices helps the farm in improving long terms sustainability in their operations. Besides this, promotional activities and pricing also helps the farm in improving the dairy product sell.

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