IDF looks at the dairy chain in online symposium

The IDF Circularity in the Dairy Chain Symposium 2024, held on 3-4 December, was a gathering of experts and advocates focused on making the dairy sector more sustainable. With three sessions covering everything from the basics of circular dairy practices to farming and processing innovations, it was a packed couple of days filled with great ideas and discussions.
Reflecting on the importance of sustainability in dairy, Laurence Rycken, IDF director general, noted “The dairy sector can turn challenges into opportunities and build a circular future that’s good for the planet and our people.”
Niranjan Karade, from India’s National Dairy Development Board, inspired everyone with his approach to sustainable dairy and said, “ Under the manure value chain initiative, farmers are also being incentivised for contributing towards emission reductions. An upfront carbon finance helps them avail household level biogas plants at a very subsidised rates. In an alternate model, farmers having installed household level biogas plants have benefited from generating and monetising the carbon credits and thereby helping them enhance their income.”
The Global Food Banking Network, brought valuable insights on food waste. Ignacio Gavilán highlighted, “There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry. Food Banks are an efficient business solution to connect surplus and waste with those in need and avoid unnecessary GHG emission of food rotting in landfills.”
Young farmer Thomas Duffy impressed the audience with his passion for innovation in farming, saying, “The advancement of circularity in dairy is essential, to ensure it’s success we need to address any technical barriers on farm and any policy barriers off farm.”
Wrapping up the insights, Professor. Olivia McAuliffe, a researcher at Teagasc, shared her vision for dairy by-product reuse, stating, “The move towards a circular food system requires innovative solutions for the management of waste. We are harnessing the power of microbes to convert low-value waste streams into useful high-value products.”
Dr Constantinos Katsimpouras, of the Metabolic Engineering Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, won the best abstract presentation award for the presentation on, “Microbial conversion of dairy industry byproducts into food and feed ingredients.”