This year’s World Milk Day theme of “Celebrating Women Farmers” resonated around the world, as the annual recognition reached a record number of participants online – 2.3 billion – and many others through in-person events.
Countries across six continents conducted social media campaigns, events, advertising programs and more to mark World Milk Day before, on and after June 1. In some countries World Milk Day kicked off dairy month celebrations.
One of the consistent WMD event, advertising and social media themes was recognition of the vital role of women farmers, as well as women throughout the dairy value chain. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the leading global authority on food and agriculture, estimates that more than 37 million dairy farms are female-headed and around 80 million women are employed full-time in the dairy sector. Women also constitute up to 70 percent of the dairy workforce in many developing countries.
World Milk Day also was featured in at least 100 media stories, web articles and videos, and generated more than 500,000 engagements across social media platforms.
Global Dairy Platform, which leads awareness of and develops the theme for World Milk Day each year, has compiled a report, available here.
