Frequently Asked Questions
By Althea Zanecosky, MS, RD, LDN
Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association
December 2007
Q: I have heard that it is better for the environment to “eat local,” which reduces the number of miles food has to be transported to market. Is the dairy industry involved in reducing food miles?
A: Families are concerned about the environment and are now focusing on energy costs to transport food, currently looked at as “food miles.” A food mile is how far food travels from the farmer who produces it to the consumer who eats it. That includes the journey from farm to processor, then from processor to retailer, and finally from retailer to consumer. It also includes travel within the U.S. as well as between countries.
There are many good reasons for eating local — freshness, taste, community cohesion and even preserving open space. People seeking fresher foods for environmental, security and health reasons have begun to reconnect with local family farms. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service, in the past 10 years the number of local farmer’s markets has more than doubled, up from 1,755 to 3,706.
Farming is the largest industry in Pennsylvania and plays a major role in many of the other Mid-Atlantic states. Dairy is a major component of farming and nearly all of the farms are family owned and operated. Most milk comes from family farms. Many dairy farmers belong to a cooperative, which is owned and operated by the dairy farmers it serves. The milk is gathered from dairy farmers in that local region and brought to processors in tanker trucks. The processors pasteurize and bottle the milk to send out to stores. Milk in the Mid-Atlantic region has a very low food mile cost.
Most dairy farmers live on the land they farm, so it is personally important for farmers to protect the land for their family and future generations so they, too, have clean land and air. Dairy farmers also contribute public services in the form of open space preservation, safeguarding agrarian culture.
For more information on dairy farming and the environment see www.dairyfarmingtoday.org.