Yesterday marked the official launch of the Dairy Strong Sustainability Alliance (DSSA), a collaborative group of dairy industry professionals that seeks to foster continuous improvement in the sustainability of the dairy community with a panel of DSSA collaborators, including Dairy Business Association (DBA) Executive Director Tim Trotter.

The idea to establish DSSA was first born out of DBA’s Dairy Strong Conference held earlier this year in Madison, Wisconsin, after the conference featured a sustainability themed installment of the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) Food Dialogues panel discussion.

“After the Food Dialogue on sustainability at the January Dairy Strong event, we sat down and said ‘Now what? As an industry and a dairy community, how do we advance sustainability across Wisconsin?’ So the collaborators got together and decided to put together a sustainability alliance that brings tools to the farms and gives farmers tools to be more sustainable,” said Trotter in an interview following the announcement.

Collaborators include DBA, Yahara Pride Farms, the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), and The Nature Conservancy.

“What we’re bringing is a toolbox to farmers, so these programs have already been developed. So whatever specific goals a farmer may have, we can give them whatever resources they need, and they have already been developed and are ready for use,” said Trotter. “We aren’t producing anything, we’re a group of collaborators that connect the dots between farmers ad the programs that are already available to them.”

Listen to my full interview with Tim here:
Interview with Tim Trotter, Dairy Business Association

View and download photos from the event here:Dairy Strong Sustainability Alliance Photo Album