As we celebrate Earth Day 2009 on April 22, it’s a great opportunity to tell the public about the long-standing commitment of dairy farm families to environmental stewardship. Continuing to take action to preserve the land, water and air is essential to the livelihood of America’s dairy producers, and now the dairy checkoff is leading an industry-wide effort to help dairy producers do even more to reduce their carbon footprint.

Reporter Brian Baxter chats with David Pelzer of Dairy Management, Inc. about the amazing story of the American dairy producer. You can get involved in sharing the dairy production story for Earth Day, too! Simply start talking. The most effective way is to start telling your story online. To celebrate Earth Day and promote agriculture, let’s have a concentrated effort to raise awareness on blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook and anywhere else that may reach consumers. Check out these links to follow Twitter updates on dairy and Earth Day. Oh, and Happy Earth Day, dairy farmers! As food producers, we are the original environmentalists!

Listen to the audio clip with Baxter and Pelzer here. [audio:http://animal.agwired.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2009/04/dairycheckoffnews_earthday.mp3]