Dairy leaders form partnership to increase opportunities to earn from sustainability practices

ARLINGTON, Va. — Thanks to a new partnership, dairy producers will soon have additional options for achieving and marketing verified greenhouse gas reductions from on-farm sustainability practices.

The National Milk Producers Federation, California Dairies Inc. and Athian announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a “carbon intensity” protocol supported by the FARM Environmental Stewardship Program, which seeks to define, quantify and verify how production efficiencies and new practice adoption contribute to positive environmental outcomes.

“Facilitating supply chain partnerships is an important part of our mission,” said Kendra Tolley, chief product officer for Athian. “So, this MOU is a perfect demonstration of how our technology works to unite common interests around delivering new revenue opportunities for farmers and Scope 3 solutions for food companies.”

Athian is a technology company, founded in 2022, to connect food company buyers looking to source Scope 3 reductions with sustainability minded farmers in their supply chain.

They have committed through this MOU to work with their Scientific Advisory Board and accredited third party auditors to define, verify and monetize the on-farm practices that will be part of the protocol and then identify buyers for the resulting outcomes and insets they generate.

“This partnership supports dairy farmers interested in carbon claim opportunities by creating a streamlined process,” said Nicole Ayache, chief sustainability officer for NMPF, which administers the National Dairy FARM Program.

“Farms who engage in a protocol that aligns with FARM ES methodology can use data already collected by its evaluation tool to pursue efficiencies benefiting the environment and their business.”

As part of the MOU, FARM will contribute advice on quantification methodology, as well as data collection and calculation support so farmers who are interested in generating carbon claims can receive additional value from the data they collect for FARM ES evaluations.

California Dairies, as the largest member-owned milk marketing and processing cooperative in the state, will contribute to the MOU by supporting the development and implementation of this new protocol for the benefit of its farmer members.

“CDI is guided by a promise to move as fast as technology and farmer economics allow,” said Darrin Monteiro, senior vice president of sustainability and member relations at CDI.

“This MOU supports our promise, and we believe will play a pivotal role into the future of dairy sustainability.”