News Dairy farm
'A single global measure of climate impact is needed'
Finding a benchmark for the climate impact of dairy farming, which can best be used all over the world, makes sense, but it is also quite a task. This was a key point in Robert Baars' inaugural speech as a lecturer at Van Hall University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden. He made his point at the Climate Smart Dairy Value Chains symposium.
Baars sees inconsistencies in how, for example, in the Netherlands the climate burden is measured by dairy farming, with a measure for CO2 per kilo of milk production and a measure for nitrogen per hectare. He would prefer to see CO2 emissions from milk production also expressed in volume per hectare.
Clearer and fairer
Such a benchmark is more unambiguous and fairer, Baars suggests. According to him, it would also do more justice to the conditions in Africa, for example. Milk production also takes place there, but according to the standards currently used, it is considered very inefficient. To produce a kilo of milk in Africa, a relatively large amount of CO2 is emitted there. In any case, much more than in Europe. However, CO2 emissions per hectare of land in Africa are low, while CO2 emissions from milk production per hectare of land in Europe are quite high.
The question for Baars is which yardstick and which type of milk production will best serve the climate around the world.
Klaas van der Horst
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