The Ethical Dairy’s dedication and drive to tackle environmental change has been recognised by the VIBES – Scottish Environment Business Awards.
A multi-agency judging panel recently selected 35 businesses from across the country to receive prestigious Good Practice Awards and praised their commitment to good environmental practice. From this prestigious list, 12 winners will be shortlisted for an Outstanding Achievement Award on Friday 17 September.
The announcement has come as part of Scotland’s Climate Week 2021, which runs from 13 to 19 September.
Climate Week aims to raise awareness, showcase climate leadership, and encourage action, building momentum ahead of the UN climate negotiations, known as COP26, coming to Glasgow in November.
Rainton Farm, home of The Ethical Dairy, is an agroecological, organic farm, pioneering cow-with-calf dairy farming. Believed to be the largest cow-with-calf dairy in the world, Rainton’s management system harnesses natural systems for ecological, biodiversity, sustainability and animal welfare gains.
25 years of soil data suggests Rainton has been carbon negative over that period; sequestering 5 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year.
David Finlay, the farmer at The Ethical Dairy, commented:
“We are very pleased to be shortlisted for a VIBES Outstanding Achievement award, particularly this year at a time when agriculture is being rightfully challenged on its environmental track record.
“Our focus is proving that farming can be an important part of the climate solution. Working with nature in grass-based farming systems can help to lock carbon into the soil and build biodiversity, and it’s really important that Scotland recognises the positive environmental impact that pasture-based food production has.
“One of the things we are very keen to highlight is that transitioning to climate-friendly farming isn’t something that happens overnight. We’ve been on this journey for over twenty years now, and I would say it took the first ten years for us to really understand how to properly harness natural systems. There are no quick fixes to environmental change in food systems, but the important thing is that change starts now.
“In the run up to COP26 we are keen to speak with policy makers and politicians to demonstrate that change is possible and to highlight the big opportunity for Scotland to lead the way in climate friendly, nature based farming.”
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