GDP Bulletin September / October 2024

New Report Shows Global Socio-economic Impact of Dairy

A new report, “Dairy and Socio-economic Development; What Evidence Does the Data Hold?” shows how dairy sector growth has a direct positive benefit toward fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The report, which was released at the GDP Annual Meeting on October 14 in Paris, is the latest in a series of reports based on the Dairy Impact Methodology (DIM) tool. GDP worked with FAO, IFAD, IFCN Dairy Research Network and the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL) to develop the DIM tool, which highlights the socio-economic benefits of the dairy sector.

“Dairy and Socio-economic Development” examines relationships between dairy sector development and 97 statistical variables for 187 countries and territories in different world regions, including low, lower middle, upper middle- and high-income economies.

The report provides a much-needed perspective on livestock’s contributions to socio-economic development, and demonstrates how sector growth and transformation benefits society, which is often undervalued by governments and intergovernmental organizations.

Key report findings include:

The transformation of the dairy sector benefits farmers, employees, consumers and governments, and contributes to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of no poverty (SDG1), zero hunger (SDG2), good health and well-being (SDG3), quality education (SDG4) and decent work and economic growth (SDG8)
Governments in high dairy producing countries can potentially generate between 50 to 90 times more tax revenue than low milk yielding countries. This can allow them to more effectively provide the public goods and services that will be necessary to achieve multiple SDGs
Dairy sector development helps play a key role in improving consumer access to nutritious dairy products at lower costs

GDP Annual Meeting, NOURISH Take Place in Paris

Dairy sector leaders from across the world gathered in Paris in mid-October to attend the GDP Annual Meeting and NOURISH 2024.

The GDP Annual Meeting took place the afternoon of Oct. 14, featured Professor Mairead Kiely of University College Cork in Ireland, who delivered a keynote on “Why We Need to Keep Talking About Nutrition.”

Other panels featured an update on Pathways to Dairy Net Zero; dairy’s socio-economic impact, featuring Badi Besbes, Chief, Sustainable Animal Production, Feed and Genetics Branch – Animal Production and Health Division, FAO and Ernesto Reyes, Sector Lead: Dairy Development, Global Dairy Platform, who discussed the release of the “Dairy and Socio-economic Development” report; and a GDP strategic direction panel featuring members of the GDP Operational Committee. The event ended with a welcome reception and a showing of the documentary, “World Without Cows.”

At NOURISH 2024, keynote speakers included Pierre Bascou, Director for Markets and Acting Deputy Director-General for Markets and International – DG Agriculture and Rural Development – European Commission, who discussed farmers’ essential role in food security, as well as future EU policies for agriculture; and Paul J. Moughan, Distinguished Professor, Riddet Institute, Massey University, who focused on the four domains of food sustainability through the lens of protein, touching on the recently completed, multi-year protein study funded through GDP and others. Panel discussions covered topics such as regenerative agriculture and a new environmental initiative involving several GDP members; innovation, geopolitical changes, future expectations for the dairy sector and farmer insights. NOURISH was sponsored by dsm-firmenich. Look for save the date emails soon for the 2025 events.

GDP to Participate in Side Events at COP29 this November

GDP is working with partner organizations and members to organize and participate in multiple side events at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, this November, to tell dairy’s story of environmental progress to influential global leaders.

This includes:

An official side event “Sustainable Strategies for Dairy, Beef, and Rice Sectors: Efforts to Cut Methane Emissions” in conjunction with the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) and the country of Uruguay. The event will explore sustainable strategies for the dairy, beef, and rice sectors to cut methane emissions, while highlighting innovative practices and collaborative efforts.
A second event in the CGIAR Pavilion that goes into more detail on strategies for the rice, dairy and beef sectors to reduce methane emissions. GDP Executive Director Donald Moore will speak on a panel, and discuss the sector’s commitment to environmental progress, as exemplified in Pathways to Dairy Net Zero.

Dairy Sector Focuses on Progress at Climate Week NYC

During Climate Week NYC in September 2024, GDP organized an event and participated in several others, highlighting Pathways to Dairy Net Zero progress, on-farm innovation that cuts methane emissions and how members are harnessing technologies and using data to cut their carbon footprint. More than 600 events covering 10 themes took place in-person and virtually during Climate Week NYC, and GDP helped organize activities for GDP member companies as well as its Dairy Ambassadors.

On Sept. 25, GDP Executive Director Donald Moore was a panelist during the Catholic Relief Services-Farm Journal Foundation UN General Assembly event, where he spoke of the importance of dairy nutrition to feed a growing world population and the progressive work of the dairy industry in reducing its environmental impacts. He also introduced the “Livestock Tackling the Methane Challenge” event that was organized by GDP in partnership with Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which featured Hanne Sondergaard, Executive Vice President, Agriculture, Sustainability & Communications at Arla Foods, Mireille Einwachter, Chief Sustainability Officer, FrieslandCampina, and executives from dsm-firmenich, Elanco and ArkeaBio.

Following the GDP-GRSB event at the same location, former DFA executive and GDP Operational Committee member Jay Waldvogel spoke on a panel discussion at the “Pastures of Plenty: Sustainable Livestock Solutions for Climate, Nature and People” event. It was organized by the Advancing Livestock for Climate (Alive4Climate) Coalition, which includes ILRI, WWF (US), Heifer International, The Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund. Waldvogel discussed Dairy Nourishes Africa and Pathways to Dairy Net Zero.