Certainly, as the past CEO and current board member of Schreiber Foods Inc., I have witnessed how much milk arrives to our plants from dairy cooperatives every day. But having the ability to sit at the table with the farmers who produce that milk and hearing from them directly and candidly through the Innovation Center has been a gift.
I’ve said it many times and I mean it: dairy processors are nothing without milk. We can’t transform anything without a dairy solid that comes from milk. We don’t own cows, we don’t own farms, so it starts with farmers.
I feel strongly about the many connections, trust and unity the Innovation Center has fostered since its founding by dairy farmers through their checkoff 13 years ago. I don’t think we could have ever projected its impact.
It’s been especially great watching the trust grow over the years between farmers and processors. That wasn’t always the case during my nearly 30 years in the industry. Years ago, neither side likely thought they had enough things in common. But the Innovation Center has worked very hard to break that down. There must be unity and there must be enough value in this for everybody to thrive.
The Innovation Center’s message is we are stronger together. The pre-competitive nature of how we function has been the key and our efforts have benefitted farmers as well as dairy overall.
One of our significant moments was announcing the U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment to support farmers, cooperatives and processors who voluntarily choose to work across the industry to advance sustainability leadership and transparently report progress. Retailers and other dairy buyers can use the Stewardship Commitment as assurance of their suppliers’ sustainability and continuous improvement efforts, and we encourage our customers to share this story with consumers.
This matters more than ever with increasing consumer interest in who grows their food, where it comes from and how it’s made. The Stewardship Commitment is the U.S. dairy industry’s transparent response where we collectively can demonstrate positive social, environmental and economic impact through collaboration across the value chain.
Food Safety Focus
Another important Innovation Center endeavor was tackling food safety, which assures consumer confidence in the products we all produce. We don’t want any company competing on the merits of food safety. All food produced by the U.S. dairy industry should be safe, period. By all means, compete on service, compete on price, compete on taste, but let’s all agree food safety should not be a selling point
This is why the Innovation Center formed the food safety committee where we all share best practices. It’s refreshing to see companies explain how they keep harmful pathogens or contaminants out of their plants and openly share these practices for the greater good.
But no matter where these competing efforts lead, they’ll never match the great stories originating from our country’s dairy farms. They’ll never be able to tout how generations of families rise every day to produce safe and wholesome dairy foods with great care for their land and animals. And how those families give back to their neighbors and communities.
Schreiber is just one of many companies that has benefited from the commitment of our farm families to assure we have a healthy supply of milk. We have never taken for granted the great effort it takes to get that milk from the farm to our plants.
My heartfelt appreciation goes out to the country’s dairy farmers who keep our industry running.
To learn more about your national dairy checkoff, visit www.USDairy.com or send a request to join our Facebook group. To reach us directly, send an email to TalkToTheCheckoff@dairy.org.
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