On April 24, 2023, Maple Hill Creamery, the first 100% grass-fed organic dairy company in the U.S., announced finalization of the award of $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The funding is designed to grow markets for regenerative grass-fed organic dairy farming nationwide.
The funding, initially announced in September 2022, is part of the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, awarding $2.8 billion in funding to pilot projects that will help build and expand opportunities for consumers to purchase food grown in a climate-friendly way.
“Over the past year, leaders from Maple Hill have worked to develop a program called ‘Pay for Progress’ to educate farmers, measure and improve our industry-leading regenerative practices, and expand regenerative dairy farming. This partnership with the USDA will help fund a significant portion of that program,” said Mitch Clark, senior vice president of supply chain for Maple Hill Creamery.
“With this support from the USDA, Maple Hill will expand its leadership in regenerative agriculture and be able to provide best practices to more farmers,” he added.
As the largest 100 percent grass-fed focused dairy business in the U.S, Maple Hill Creamery continues to lead with its sustainable regenerative agriculture practices and was awarded funding from the USDA for the following programs to help promote industry growth:
- Expansion of Climate-Smart Markets: Maple Hill will educate its small family dairy farmers on how to improve their pastures with leading climate-smart practices to upgrade soil health. The data-driven program, called Pay for Progress, will incentivize implementation and provide training support to help farmers enhance regenerative and environmental practices. Maple Hill will host approximately 30 regional educational events per year with resources and experts providing one-on-one guidance. In addition, pasture scoring will provide trackable data on soil health, diversity of plant cover, ground cover and more.
- Consumer Education: Maple Hill will help consumers understand the regenerative farming practices and why grass-fed organic dairy is better for consumers, better for the environment, better for cows and better for farmers.
“Once consumers learn about the benefits of regenerative farming and 100% grass-fed organic dairy, they’ll recognize the correlation between these practices and their desires for a healthier environment, healthier animals and healthier dairy products,” said Jim Hau, president of Maple Hill Creamery.
As America’s original grass-fed organic dairy, Maple Hill’s mission is to bring healthy, organic, 100 percent grass-fed dairy products to U.S. families.
With healthy soil as the cornerstone of everything they do, Maple Hill works within its network of organic 100 percent grass-fed farmers to develop and implement practices that result in the regeneration of the land through the management of organic pastures and grass-fed cows.
When managed in harmony with nature, grazing cows are one of the most effective tools on Earth to ignite life in the soil, which is the foundation of the carbon cycle, soil fertility, economic viability for farmers and the nutrition in human bodies.
Maple Hill’s organic milk supply and the nourishment provided to families through its products start with the health of the soil, the grass and the happy healthy cows on the family farms.
Photo courtesy of Maple Hill Creamery.
See Maple Hill Creamery website.
Learn more about the USDA’s Climate-Smart Commodities program.