Milking the Planet: How Big Dairy is heating up planet and hollowing out rural communities

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 16

A new study claims global corporations increased milk production by 8 per cent in 2015-17, pushing several family-owned farms out of business and left a significant carbon footprint.

The report called ‘Milking the Planet: How big dairy is heating up the planet and hollowing rural communities” by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) says corporations have left several small dairy farmers with mounting debts and declining farm incomes in four major dairy producing regions—Europe, the US, New Zealand and India.

“Farmers continue to be paid below the cost of production in these regions,” says lead author Shefali Sharma, European director at IATP. “The aim of the report is to drive home the point that the right farm and trade policies can also translate into the right climate policies,” Sharma says.

The study attributes the dramatic crash in global dairy prices between 2015-16 to giant corporations increasing dairy production, dramatically affecting the chain of supply and demand and pushing down prices.

As these companies expanded and profited, increasing milk production by 8 per cent from 2015 and 2017, thousands of small-scale and family farms around the globe went out of business.

“With COVID-19 exacerbating the crisis rural communities face, the calls for supply management that enables fairer prices while curtailing overproduction have grown louder,” Sharma says.

Additionally, they also contributed significantly to GHG gas emissions: the study says the total combined GHG emissions of 13 of the world’s largest dairy corporations—called the Big Dairy—rose by 11 per cent between 2015 and 2017. Some even reported an emission rise of 30 per cent, the study says.

“In 2017, these companies together emitted more GHGs than two of the top 20 fossil fuel emitters, BHP and ConocoPhillip,” it says.

The top 13 global dairy companies combined increased greenhouse gas emissions by 11% in two years, the study says.

“Unlike growing public scrutiny on fossil fuel companies, little public pressure exists to hold global meat and dairy corporations accountable for their emissions,” Sharma says.

“As governments ratchet up their climate goals, the rise of large-scale dairy and public incentives that further increase corporate dairy power, production and emissions must be stopped,” she said, adding “rural livelihoods and our planet’s future depend on it”.