Chobani grant supports future of sustainability in dairy

As the dairy industry faces mounting pressure from consumers to report on environmental sustainability impacts, a collaboration between Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Chobani is aimed at helping dairy farmers reduce their environmental footprint.

A $500,000 grant from Chobani to Quirine Ketterings, professor of nutrient management in the Department of Animal Science in Cornell CALS and director of the Cornell Nutrient Management Spear Program (NMSP), will allow continued development of sustainability best practices for dairy farmers and will document the progress agriculture is making towards becoming more sustainable.

The NMSP, which is home to the Dairy Sustainability Key Indicators Project, partners with farmers and farm advisers to conduct research. In 2020 Roberta Osborne, director of farms and sustainability for Chobani, approached Ketterings with an interest in funding research that shows precisely how dairy farmers are making strides in such areas as nutrient use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, water quality impacts, animal and plant production efficiencies, and biodiversity on farms.