IDF dairy farming summit Edinburgh
In a joint effort to tackle climate change and further increase sustainable practices, the International Dairy Federation and De Laval have come together to organise the “First IDF Dairy Farming Summit” under the theme “Climate Change - The Heat is On?”
The Summit, the first in a series of events to concentrate on dairy farming issues, will take place at the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland and the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) Crichton Royal Farm in Dumfries from June 25-27 2008.
The event is entirely devoted to global warming, its impact on dairy farming and how dairy farming affects the environment. Topics that will be discussed include the impact of climate change on animal health and welfare in the dairy sector, pollution, deforestation, water shortage and energy use.
“Our aim is to give the dairy farmers some practical and hands on advice on what they can do to reduce environmental impact as part of their daily routines. We all have a responsibility when it comes to these questions and we can contribute one way or the other”, says dairy farmer David Homer, the Chairman of the Organising Committee and the person responsible for co-ordinating IDF’s dairy farming programme.
Like most businesses today agriculture needs to consider its contribution to the climate change. At the same time the increasing global temperature presents a fundamental threat to millions of farmers all over the world.
“IDF is taking a pro-active approach to support sustainable agriculture by identifying best practices and sharing international experiences. Our objective is to ensure the production of safe and high quality nutritious dairy food for human consumption, undertaken in harmony with the environment.” said Christian Robert, IDF Director General.
Dairy producers from 40 countries will actively participate in defining the problems and identifying feasible solutions that can improve their businesses through interactive panel discussions during the event.
Main highlights of the IDF Dairy Farming Summit include presentations on energy source and usage (USA), water access and usage (Egypt), climate change and global warming (The Netherlands), contamination and pollution (China) and biodiversity and deforestation (Brazil). In addition, a review of the FAO report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow”, the predicted climate models for the featured countries and an evaluation of the economic implications will also be presented. Panel discussions will also be organized where the subjects will be dealt with in more detail.
All delegates will also visit the Acrehead and Crichton Dairy Units at the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) Dairy Research Farm at Dumfries on the final day to see how these issue impact on the life of the dairy farmer first-hand and identify actions that farmers can take to ensure that dairy farming has a sustainable and profitable future for the long term.
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