While much of the news in mainstream media and much on social media about dairies focuses on the accusations of anti-farm critics (much of it false as we often cover here), the real story is the continuing progress toward sustainability and environmental performance.

Here are some excellent examples from these award winners from the Innovation Center for US Dairy. However, Washington dairy farmers (which includes several past award winners) are often at the forefront of these innovative changes.  Congrats to all the winners and all those farmers working hard to do the right things.

While climate change gets all the press as one of the main threats to the future of the human race, little attention is paid to how we will feed 9 billion people in the near future. This issue is made all the more urgent given the direction of public sentiment to things like GMOs, organic farming, small vs big, etc. These factors, as this article points out rather gently, contribute to the very great challenges ahead.

Not enough non-farmer types in our cities are even aware of the Green Revolution, the post WWII application of new technologies that has fed the world for the past 50-70 years. Now, as this article points out, a Green Revolution 2.0 is urgently needed, and now is the time to get it going. We have new problems to solve, such as increasing water shortages and increasing pressure on farms related to water. Unless many are to starve, solutions must be found and soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/06/24/this-quiet-agricultural-moonshot-could-change-the-future-of-food/?utm_term=.7c6e75780058