Milk is going for an even more wholesome image. The National Milk Producers Federation in the U.S. announced this week that they will produce a sustainability plan for the entire dairy industry. Not to be one-upped, the U.K. just released a “Milk Roadmap” for its dairy industry.

The industry is examining everything from the waxy boxes your milk comes in to cow releases of greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps inspired by China’s cow energy program, the NMPF specifically addressed the potential for the dairy industry to capturing and sell methane from cow manure. Some California cows are already hooked into the energy grid.

“We want to be sure that our industry is well-positioned to take advantage of future opportunities – both in terms of credits for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as developing new products and markets for milk,” said National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jerry Kozak.

My great-grandfather owned a dairy farm in Chicago in the late 1800s, and it’s hard to say what he’d think about dairies today turning cow farts/poop into electricity. But capturing potent greenhouse gases from cows and doing something productive with them is a form of progress (albeit a strange one), and one that produces not only economic benefits, but social benefits for all through corporate environmental responsibility.

We’re hoping though, that the dairy industry does more than get their feet wet in the pool of ethics - could the “Milk Superhighway” stretch to include considerations not only for the benefit of our shared environment, but also for the benefit of the domestic beasts the industry relies on?

Via ClimateBiz

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