National Dairy FARM Program: 2015 Year in Review
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The National Dairy FARM Program: Animal Care is Everyone’s Responsibility There is great benefit in uniting around the issue of animal care and making sound decisions to safeguard the future of the dairy industry. The National Dairy FARM Animal Care Program was created to show dairy customers and consumers that dairy producers have a caring relationship with their animals and demonstrate dairy farmers’ commitment to animal care and producing wholesome milk. By uniting behind one animal care program, we eliminate the possibility that brands and retailers— unduly influenced by animal rights activists and others— will create their own animal care programs and impose those programs on co-ops, processors, and ultimately, producers. The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy’s Animal Care Committee, which include representatives from co-ops, processors, retailers, and restaurants, commended the success of the FARM Animal Care Program and complimented its sound structure. For the last year, the Committee has focused capitalizing on the FARM Animal Care Program, using its core principals to go further in the areas of communication and food chain outreach. The consistency and integrity of the FARM Animal Care Program also allows us to stave off burdensome legislations and regulations at the state, federal and international levels. The FARM Animal Care Program allows us to definitively demonstrate to the United States Department of Agriculture, Congress and state legislatures that the dairy industry has a robust and rigorous animal care program that the vast majority of America’s dairy farmers follow.
Though there’s work to be done, the FARM Animal Care Program creates a culture of continuous improvement that allows industry welfare experts to work together with producers for positive change. Without this rigorous program, the dairy industry would lack the cohesiveness and positive momentum to accomplish its animal care goals. In the following pages, you’ll read about the new heights the FARM Animal Care Program has reached this year, and what we have planned for the future. We’re all in this together, because animal care is everyone’s responsibility.