Dairy is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, representing 2.5% of global emissions – so lowering its impact is an urgent priority.
Trouw Nutrition and the Global Dairy Platform (GDP) have agreed to collaborate on a global pre-competitive Animal Nutrition Workstream to help support and guide research on innovative solutions to decarbonise the dairy sector. Developed as part of the Pathways to Dairy Net Zero (P2DNZ) initiative, the task force will provide leadership in the dairy nutrition space, focusing on opportunities to minimise the environmental impact of dairy production through innovative forage, feed and feeding developments and technologies. To launch this partnership, GDP and Trouw Nutrition will host two P2DNZ webinars on January 17.
The GDP is a dairy value chain organisation whose members collaborate pre-competitively to address issues important to the industry. GDP developed the P2DNZ initiative, a growing global movement dedicated to reducing dairy’s greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years by accelerating action against climate change throughout the dairy sector. Over 200 organisations, representing nearly 40% of global milk production, have already signed on.
The immediate goals of the new Animal Nutrition Workstream include:
- Identifying high-impact development areas and assembling workstreams to address them
- Creating a pre-competitive and collaborative forum to identify and address barriers to implementing and scaling solutions
- Demonstrating the dairy sector’s commitment to achieving sustainability goals
JJ Degan, Ruminant Manager of Global Strategic Marketing at Trouw Nutrition, said” At Trouw Nutrition, we are committed to investing in improving the future of dairy farming. We believe that the P2DNZ’s collaborative and pre-competitive approach will enable us to collectively identify game-changing opportunities that will help us move the needle on the urgent task of reducing the dairy sector’s climate impact while also increasing the supply and access of nutritious dairy foods to a growing global population”.
A critical and urgent challenge
The dairy sector supports one billion people’s livelihoods while also providing nutritious dairy products to billions across the globe. It will play a critical role in helping to achieve Nutreco’s purpose of Feeding the Future: ensuring the 10 billion people on the planet in 2050 have enough high-quality nutrients to thrive. But at the same time, dairy is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, representing 2.5% of global emissions – so lowering its impact is an urgent priority.
Degan explained the focus on animal nutrition is an important part of the solution, noting that, “roughly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions on dairy farms are related to feeding cattle, and about another 40% of emissions come from enteric methane. The Animal Nutrition Workstream will work on reducing these impact areas.”
Donald Moore, GDP Executive Director, said, “We know all the good that dairy can do in the world. Now we need to be sure that, as we move forward, we’re making the dairy sector as environmentally, socially, economically and nutritionally sustainable as we can. This is a key component of the P2DNZ program and this newest workstream. We’re excited to collaborate with the team at Trouw Nutrition to tap into their expertise on how innovative animal nutrition solutions can help us lower emissions”.
“Driving dairy sustainability is a complex task that will require collaboration across the value chain, so we urge other players in the chain to join us on this journey. We can go much further together than alone, and it’s critical to the future of our industry – and the planet – that our work has a real impact,” said Degan.
GDP and Trouw Nutrition will be hosting two P2DNZ webinars on January 17 to dive into how the animal nutrition industry is contributing to our global sustainability goals and how we can take the next steps on this journey in the area of cow feed, and to introduce the Animal Nutrition Workstream.
