Does the food industry really care?” The short answer is: Yes. The national dairy farmer leaders believe that, together, we can and should show we are responsible food producers and prove we care for land and animals.

The proAction Advisory Committee was formally established in January 2014, consisting of farmers and staff from each provincial dairy organization as well as DFC staff. They hold regular discussions and provide guidance to the development of proAction modules, which integrate on-farm assurance initiatives.

Technical committees are also working on the program development side of the six modules of proAction, so that all key constituencies have the information needed to meet the July 2015 milestone dairy leaders have given themselves to approve and communicate the content of the remaining modules.

Not only do we need to implement efficient and results-oriented modules to meet our July 2015 milestone, we also must ensure that our buyers in the food industry support proAction.

Responsible production practices also resound well with consumers. All dairy farmers have already reached the objective of the milk quality module (400,000 SCC, for example), and DFC’s marketing campaigns are already celebrating this milestone in the marketplace, putting forward programs that inform the public about farmers’ dedication to quality.

One such example is the recent DFC partnership with Breakfast Television and CTV Morning Live Atlantic shows. On-location hosts in each of six cities (Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax) visited a dairy farm and filmed multiple two-minute segments demonstrating Canadian dairy farmers’ commitment to producing high-quality milk.

Consumers were invited to exchange with our featured dairy farmers and the respective television stations using dairy farmers tweet and 100% Canadian Milk Twitter handles.

Visit the 100% Canadian Milk Facebook page to watch the videos. They will be posted at regular intervals during the month of November.  PD

Run for farmers by farmers, Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) is the national policy organization representing Canada’s farmers. DFC strives to create stable conditions for the Canadian dairy industry, today and in the future.