While sustainability continues be a major focus in 2019, it isn’t a new priority for U.S. farmers, processors and manufacturers. As a global leader in sustainability and social responsibility, the U.S. dairy industry has had a long-standing commitment to healthy people, a healthy planet and healthy communities.

Last year marked the 10^th Anniversary of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy and the Dairy Sustainability Alliance®. Over the past decade, the U.S. dairy community has worked together proactively and pre-competitively to align on key priorities, demonstrate responsible practices and achieve greater trust with both consumers and customers.

More than 100 organizations have joined the Alliance, bringing diverse voices from across the value chain together to advance dairy sustainability. USDEC members either participate in the alliance or often their milk supply is represented through the farmer cooperative participants. Collectively tools are developed, such as food safety and traceability guidance, the first ISO-accredited animal care program, environmental stewardship resources and more.

The commitment is so strong from the farming and processing communities that a voluntary goal was set in 2009 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity of fluid milk 25% by 2020. The industry has since worked to accelerate the adoption of waste-to-energy projects and energy efficiency improvements on U.S. dairy farms.

Within the global marketplace, it’s more important than ever to continuously improve and transparently report our positive impact on the world. The U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment will enable U.S. Dairy to better demonstrate and document how nutritious milk and dairy products are responsibly produced against defined criteria for important areas like animal care, the environment and food safety.

The industry also co-hosts an annual Sustainable Agriculture Summit to establish innovative solutions that will meet tomorrow’s needs. The 2018 Summit drew record attendance with more than 580 agriculture leaders from five countries—including farmers, retailers, brands and other stakeholders who came together to address challenges and accelerate progress in agricultural sustainability.

We look forward to building on these successes, as U.S. Dairy is poised for an even stronger 2019.