Last month, I was invited to be part of Lancaster Farming’s FarmHouse podcast series.
They interviewed me about highly pathogenic avian influenza in dairy and more broadly about the Center for Dairy Excellence, the Dairy Excellence Foundation and the work we do to benefit dairy.
One of the first questions they asked was if I always saw myself working in agriculture. I thought about it for a while and then answered, “No,” because I started college thinking I was going to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.
A week or two after the FarmHouse interview, I talked with two dairy farm women who said the same. When they were younger, they did not see themselves coming back to the farm.
It made me think about what it is so many of us who grow up on dairy farms realize we miss once we get away.
For me, it was working within the close-knit community that exists within the industry and within our farm families — something I didn’t realize I loved as much as I did until I left it — and the opportunity to play even just a small role in helping to feed the world. I also realized I missed the time I spent outside on the farm working with animals.
Another question they asked during the FarmHouse podcast was how I was planning to celebrate June Dairy Month. I mentioned our “Dairy Is Goodness That Matters Locally” campaign and the Pennsylvania Ice Cream Trail, both great ways to celebrate this month. The question also made me think of the many reasons we have to celebrate June Dairy Month.
I shared my 10 favorites in past columns, but here they are again.
1. Dairy’s health benefits
Milk is a naturally sourced nutrient powerhouse that contains the nine essential nutrients to good nutrition. Research shows that regardless of fat content, dairy foods, like milk, cheese and yogurt, are associated with improved bone health, especially in children and teens, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and lower blood pressure in adults.
2. Product versatility
When you think of how many products can be derived from milk, it’s nothing short of amazing — cheese, yogurt, ice cream, butter, cottage cheese, sour cream, the list goes on.
Then, consider all the foods that have dairy as an ingredient or in the recipe. It’s used as a base for soup and in chocolate. It’s used in biscuit mixes and to add flavoring to snacks.
I cannot think of any other natural food as versatile as milk.
3. A clean label
One challenge the dairy industry faces, right now, is the systemic decline in fluid milk sales. Milk now has many different competitors in the beverage aisle.
But one advantage milk has that many of these competitors don’t is a clean label. We need to remind consumers that milk is all natural, and it doesn’t take a chemical process to make.
The chemistry exists within the dairy cow.
4. The foster mother of humanity
I once saw an exhibit that called the dairy cow a “modern marvel.” If you look back through history, a dairy cow has been a part of our culture since before biblical times because of her ability to take forages and other things we can’t eat and transform them into a nutritious food.
5. A local supply
Local is the new buzzword. Everyone wants to make sure the food they are buying is local.
They’ll drive out of their way to the local farm market just to be sure they are buying local. Grocery stores even have special displays featuring local foods to prevent those lost sales.
Milk is produced locally here in Pennsylvania 52 weeks out of the year, and is often in the grocery store within three days of being produced.
6. A stronger infrastructure
Dairy fuels jobs. In Pennsylvania alone, the dairy industry is responsible for 47,000 jobs.
A study conducted by the Center shows that 48% of those jobs come from the farm level while 52% of them are in the post-farm dairy-processing activities. Those jobs depend on the strength and resiliency of our dairy farms and the broader industry.
7. A huge economic impact
Along with supporting good jobs, the Pennsylvania dairy industry contributes $11.7 billion in annual economic revenue to the commonwealth. Every one dairy cow in the state contributes $24,000 to the local economy, and the average dairy farm in Pennsylvania generates about $2.2 million in annual economic revenue.
8. The backbone of our communities
Dairy farms provide other benefits to Pennsylvania’s rural communities — wide open spaces and natural water filtration.
Farm families are often valuable members of the local community, participating in civic organizations, churches, school boards and local government. Service is something taught in a farm family, from little on up.
9. A faith-based heritage
Farming is about faith. We plant crops in the spring and have faith that God will provide the harvest we need in the fall.
We nurture a newborn calf and have faith that she will one day be a productive member of our herd. Farm families have meals together, pray together and go to church together.
That is something lost by much of our society but still exists in our farming culture, and it is the foundation of what our nation was built upon.
10. Passionate farm families
Farm families care deeply for their farms, for the animals they raise, for the crops they grow and for the land they call home. It is easy to get frustrated at all the anti-farming rhetoric out there.
We need to continue to tell our story and share that passion we have with non-farm neighbors because they do not know what we do or how much we care.
Our Goodness That Matters Locally campaign also talks about the source of nourishment, community and sustainability dairy provides to local communities across Pennsylvania — more reasons to love being in this industry.
If you would like to share how dairy is goodness that matters locally, you can request posters, rack cards and yard signs from the Center during June Dairy Month. To make a request, call 717-346-0849, email ebarge@centerfordairyexcellence.org or visit lanc.farm/DairyIsGoodness.
The FarmHouse highlights women in agriculture. Listen to Jayne’s interview below:
