Dairy Streamlet: Understanding Climate Smart programs and how to get involved

Dairy Stream

The Dairy Streamlet is a condensed version of a long Dairy Stream episode and covers just the high-level points of the conversation. If this topic interest you, then listen to the full episode on April 24.

With billions of dollars being invested in climate-smart, are farmers participating and how can a farm identify which on-farm project is the best fit? Join Dairy Stream host Joanna Guza and guest Drew Kessler, senior scientist at Houston Engineering, as they discuss farmers involvement in Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, choosing the best program, examples of outcomes, watch outs and tools farms can use.

Special thanks to The Nature Conservancy of Wisconsin for sponsoring this episode.

About the guest:

• Drew Kessler is the Senior Scientist at Houston Engineering. He leads Houston Engineering’s Environmental Service Sector. He has been working at Houston Engineering for over 10 years during which he’s grown the company’s connections to the food and dairy industry. Prior to joining Houston, Drew spent 10 years in academia focused on environmental research.

The Farmers for Sustainable Food (FSF) Climate-Smart Project is the culmination of years of proven on-farm, farmer-led sustainability work. We bring extensive experience with farm-level sustainability projects to facilitate locally focused initiatives that support targeted environmental concerns.

Our project stands out among the rest in three important ways:

1. Farmer-driven: No requirement for farmers to implement any specific practices, individual farm groups determine the area of focus.
2. Incentives: Stipends available up to $9,000 a year based on level of participation
3. Hands-on support: Technical support at the farm level to help participants understand their scores and how to leverage their data into management decisions for positive environmental and financial outcomes.

Learn more here: farmersforsustainablefood.com/climate-smart/

This podcast is co-produced by the Dairy Business Association and Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, sister organizations that fight for effective dairy policy in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. Become a sponsor, share an idea or feedback by emailing [email protected].