National Dairy Checkoff’s CEO, Barb O’Brien Talks Sustainability, Retail Future
When it comes to whether the glass is half full or half empty, Barb O’Brien, the president and chief executive officer of the national dairy checkoff organization, Dairy Management, Inc. (DMI), says the opportunity for dairy is overflowingly abundant. O’Brien recently spoke at the World Dairy Summit in Chicago, Ill., in front of more than 1,300 attendees from 55 countries.
“Regardless of scale, geography or practice, dairy farmers and manufacturers are all dealing with the same issues,” she says. “The opportunity is ours as U.S. dairy to persevere and win.”
On Our Way to Net Zero
The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, founded by America’s dairy farmers, has set aggressive environmental sustainability goals to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality, optimize water usage and improve water quality by 2050.
O’Brien says that the sustainability effort is a means to an end, meaning that the care farmers take with their cows, the land and other natural resources is ultimately about producing better milk. Be food first—it’s why dairy farmers wake up each morning to feed people.
“And with a growing global population, we know that's so important,” she says.
O’Brien adds that part of the sustainability equation is profitability. Patricia Stroup, chief procurement officer of Nestlé, Switzerland, once said, “We reserve the right to get smarter.” O’Brien adds it’s because of the investment in dairy research that checkoff can continue to provide farmers with the tools to help understand and implement that science.
For example, the Dairy Scale for Good (DS4G) pillar of the Net Zero Initiative focuses on working with partners to create on-farm pilots that implement economically viable technology and practices. It’s about finding the path for U.S. dairy to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions through various approaches while improving farm livelihood.
“We don’t have all the answers right now,” she notes.
“These pilots are designed to validate what we’ve learned through the science in a whole system approach of practices and new technologies to help us in our journey to Net Zero,” O’Brien says.
Through investment by partners, grants and the participating farms, the DS4G pilot projects focus on four key areas:
- Cow care and comfort
- Manure handling and use
- Feed production
- On-farm energy generation and use
O’Brien was pleased to hear that Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, is excited about the $3 billion commitment from the USDA that includes funding extended to 141 projects, of which 18 projects are specifically designed for dairy. And the recent announcement of 10 more dairy projects selected for funding through USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program continues the momentum.
“We are working collaboratively with many of those awardees, to provide subject matter expertise and advice to monitor and support the measurement of their impacts, to communicate, put a voice behind the work that's going to be accomplished there,” she said.
Dairy Domestic Poise
Optimistic, O’Brien shared that retail dairy demand, particularly domestically, is looking good.
“Some real shining stars for dairy are cheese, yogurt and even cottage cheese which is up double digits,” she notes. “Cream is doing really well, too.”
“The good news is inflation has come down which is why I think the numbers look as good as they do for dairy,” she says. That said, with the impending threat of a recession, O’Brien notes that consumers are having to make difficult choices.
O’Brien shares that Checkoff works with many of the giants in the retailer space, like Amazon, Kroger and Walmart. The checkoff leader references the significance of Walmart’s announcement to build a $350 million milk processing plant in Georgia, sharing that there is a revitalization effort underway in the southeast.
“There's a real concerted effort in the southeast to bring new farms and new manufacturing capabilities into the region there,” she says.
Message to Farmers
O’Brien understands that checkoff has changed dramatically in the last four decades and challenges farmers to think, ‘If not your checkoff, who then?’
“The work we're doing in science on behalf of the category including more discovery work in nutrition and wellness helps keep the category vital with claims, new messages and new product opportunities. And our work in product research and R&D is potentially game changing,” she notes. “It’s on the front edge of innovation.”
She shares that on behalf of farmers, DMI sees itself as an engine that is helping to catalyze growth and innovation through the rest of the chain.
“And our foodservices partnerships continue to drive volume and value growth. We've had that longtime relationship with McDonald's,” she shares. “There's still upside growth with burgers, but there's also great growth potential in the chicken sector.”
At the end of the day, O’Brien wants to make sure she and her team are transparent with farmers and that there is accountability with their checkoff investment.
“We're putting tighter measurement into the system,” she notes. “So, we can be crystal clear with farmers exactly how the dollars are being spent and the impact it's driving.”
O’Brien will take the stage once again, addressing farmers and attendees at the 2023 Joint Annual Meeting of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board (NDB), National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and United Dairy Industry Association (UDIA) in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 12-15.
