May 6, 2008

Friesland Foods to feed sustainable soy to its cows

Friesland Foods, one of the Netherlands' largest dairy cooperatives, announced that starting 2009 it will only feed its cows soy that has been grown according to sustainability standards.

This move has refuted the arguments made by the Dutch Nature and Environment Foundation, which said that Friesland Foods only talks about sustainable soy but does not act.

Friesland Foods plans to buy its soy from areas that have not been deforested for creating arable land.

Aside from this, the company demanded that the farmers and workers in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay comply with the standards.

This is one of the reasons Friesland Foods participate in the Round Table for Sustainable Soy production.

Campina, another major dairy producer in the Netherlands, already in 2006 committed itself to the use of sustainable soy for its dairy cows.

The cooperative used 10,000 tonnes in 2006 and 33,000 tonnes of sustainable soy last year.

Campina aims to use only sustainable soy in 2011. This will require a volume of 150,000 tonnes.