Straus Family Creamery announced a new Organic Dairy Sustainability Incentive Program, and new farm partnerships as it celebrates a 30-year legacy of environmental stewardship and organic dairy products.

Driven by Founder Albert Straus’ vision to create a sustainable organic farming and food system that supports environmental and economic resilience in rural farming communities, Straus Family Creamery’s mission and values focus on helping sustain family farms while protecting the environment, local economies, and the people who live and work in the community.

Recognizing the urgent need for collective action in reducing climate change and strengthening the farming and food system, Straus Family Creamery’s incentive program — which is among the first of its kind from a dairy processor — supports its supplying organic dairy farms in achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.

The incentives are tied to implementing on-farm climate solutions from Straus Family Creamery’s replicable carbon-neutral organic dairy farming model that will reduce on-farm greenhouse emissions to net zero and help advance the company’s mission. Incentives are paid monthly and allocated to farms based on qualified practice implementation, not through the purchase of offsets or based on post-practice results. In the first year, the program has paid a total of $250,000 in incentives. The financial incentive program is rooted in organic agriculture, which is better for the climate and enhances water, soil quality, and biodiversity. Each farm must adhere to the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program. Straus Family Creamery’s incentive program encourages the development and implementation of:

• Carbon farm plans with regenerative land management practices that build healthy soil and sequester atmospheric carbon.
• Manure management practices that decrease lagoon emissions by at least 80 percent. Implemented through small-scale anaerobic digesters and climate-smart manure management practices like composting.
• Eliminating fossil fuels through the electrification of on-farm vehicles powered by methane biogas captured in cow manure.
• Enteric methane emission (cow burps) reduction through a certified organic feed additive such as red seaweed (Asparagopsis taxiformis).

“We could not execute this program and our 2030 net carbon neutral goal without the mutual collaboration and innovation of our entire network of organic dairy farms. These farms are key stakeholders in helping us advance a sustainable organic dairy farm model and a more resilient food system,” said Joseph Button, vice president of sustainability and strategic Impact.