Several IDFA members received recognition last week for their outstanding efforts in developing partnerships to create renewable energy.

Agri-Mark and Cabot Creamery Cooperative received a U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award for outstanding dairy processing and manufacturing, and Foremost Farms USA and Schreiber Foods Inc. earned an honorable mention in the same category.

The U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards, sponsored by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, were launched in 2012 to recognize outstanding dairy farms, businesses and partnerships for socially responsible, economically viable and environmentally sound practices. Award recipients are chosen in four categories: outstanding dairy farm sustainability, outstanding dairy processing and manufacturing, outstanding achievement in resource stewardship and outstanding achievement in community partnerships.

There were 11 winners in 2016. 

Agri-Mark and Cabot Creamery Cooperative, Waitsfield Vt., received the Outstanding Dairy Processing and Manufacturing Sustainability Award for the Real Farm Power™ project, which offers an approach for recycling cow manure, food scraps and food processing byproducts to produce renewable energy for smaller and medium-sized dairy farms. In a partnership between Longview Farm, Cabot, Vanguard Renewables and Casella Organics, 46 tons of feedstock per day is diverted from community landfills to fertilize 400 acres of farmland. The project reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 5,680 tons annually and is estimated to pay back the $2.8 million project cost in just six years.

Foremost Farms USA and Schreiber Foods Inc., Richland Center, Wisc., received an honorable mention in Outstanding Dairy Processing and Manufacturing Sustainability for their partnership in creating the Richland Center Renewable Energy facility. The center generates renewable energy from the dairy plants’ wastewater. It can treat 1.4 million gallons of water per day to produce enough energy in a month to power 830 homes. The first two years of operations saved more than 14,000 metric tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions.

 Other award winners and honorable mentions:

  • Bateman’s Mosida Farms, Elberta, Utah – Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability Award
  • Jer-Lindy Farms LLC, Brooten, Minn. – Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability Award
  • Siemers Holsteins, Newton, Wisc.– Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability Award
  • Homestead Dairy, Plymouth, Ind. – Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability, Honorable Mention
  • Yahara Pride Farms Inc., Brooklyn, Wisc. – Outstanding Achievement in Resource Stewardship Award
  • Noblehurst Farms Inc., Linwood, N.Y. – Outstanding Achievement in Community Partnerships Award
  • Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, Harrisburg, Penn. – Outstanding Achievement in Community Partnerships, Honorable Mention

Read more about each award winner here.

For more information about sustainability in the dairy industry, contact Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel, at elyons@idfa.org.

2016 u.s. dairy sustainability awards agrimark cabot foremost schreiber

L-R: Joan Behr, Foremost Farms; Mike Malmstead, Schreiber Foods; Colleen Geurts, Schreiber Foods; Tom Hedge, Schreiber Foods; Justin Pope, Foremost Farms; Jed Davis, Cabot Creamery and Ann Hoogenboom, Cabot Creamery.