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Sustainability Is the Future, and Dairy Is Key Part of the Solution

By Melvin Medeiros

COWS CAN BE SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS

As a dairy farmer whose family business has been milking cows for 53 years, here’s what I think: The dairy cow is the most efficient animal on Earth today.

It can be a central source of energy for the human body, and it could be a net exporter of energy for society — with the right policies in place. California cows can be sustainability solutions.

Dairy farmers for generations have dealt with changing weather patterns and moisture challenges, and it’s made us proactive. Research shows that producing a gallon of milk in 2017 required 30% less water, 21% less land, had a 19% smaller carbon footprint, and produced 20% less manure than in 2007.

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Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.