Straus Family Creamery’s Organic Dairy Sustainability Incentive Program provides financial support to farmers implementing climate solutions. The Petaluma, California-based program offers monthly payments to growers based on the success of their emissions-reduction efforts. Farmers are encouraged to start regenerative practices, including composting and adding anaerobic digesters.
One of the Straus Family Creamery’s main missions is to help revitalize rural communities by rooting farmers in organic agriculture practices. The company has already initiated more than a quarter million dollars in incentive funding. The creamery hopes to sustain family farms while protecting the environment, local economies, and the people who live and work on and around the operations.
Photo Courtesy Straus Family Creamery
“Each year, farmers must farm with challenging climate conditions, increased expenses, and operating costs while needing to be economically viable,” Albert Straus, founder of Straus Family Creamery, said in a press release. “We want to support farmers, their stewardship of the land, and animal welfare, and help them innovate. That’s why we are creating a carbon-neutral organic dairy farming model that enables these farms to succeed to the next generation.”
Straus has long been at the forefront of promoting organic, sustainable agriculture.
Straus Family Creamery, now heading into its fourth decade, has created a carbon-neutral organic dairy farming model by promoting rotational grazing, building nutrient-dense soil, and restoring woodlands and streams.
According to the company website, its dairy farm became the first in California to develop a carbon farm plan when it established a 20-year roadmap in collaboration with the Marin Carbon Project in 2013. The Straus Family Creamery’s approach to reducing agriculture-related emissions has even been recognized by the World Wildlife Fund for its sustainable growing practices in creating everything from milk and ice cream to butter and kefir.
Photo Courtesy Straus Family Creamery
Farmers must adhere to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program guidelines to participate in the Organic Dairy Sustainability Incentive Program. Importantly, farms cannot earn incentive payments for indirect emissions reductions, such as purchasing carbon offsets.
The program is all about organic agriculture practices that are better for the climate and enhance water and soil quality while promoting biodiversity.
The program focuses on four primary sustainable agriculture practices. The first is carbon farm plans that use regenerative land management to improve soil quality while sequestering carbon from the air. Second, manure management plans that decrease emissions via small-scale anaerobic digesters and composting. The third practice is to electrify operation vehicles using methane biogas present in cow manure. The fourth is to lessen the methane emissions from cows by using organic feed additives like seaweed that cut down on digestive gasses.
“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,” Joseph Button, vice president of sustainability and strategic impact at Straus Family Creamery, said in the press release. “These farms are key stakeholders in helping us advance a sustainable organic dairy farm model and a more resilient food system.”
The incentives continue to attract more farmers to the Straus family. The company recently added three new farms to its supplier group: Moretti Family Farm, Robert McClelland Dairy, and Nosecchi Family Dairy. Straus is clearly working to help family operations be more sustainable and secure their fiscal future for generations to come.
Photo Courtesy Straus Family Creamery“[Carbon farming] helps farms be more sustainable financially and look out for the bigger picture,” Straus told the Marin Carbon Project. “In my mind, organic livestock operations are a very important solution to climate change, both dealing with our methane and using the animals to help sequester carbon.”
