MILK MINUTE

Sustainability: More than a Buzzword

BY JIM FEENEY, MMPA SENIOR DIRECTOR OF SALES

JIM FEENEY

Sustainability is a popular buzzword that has a wide variety of definitions depending on who you’re talking to. From carbon emissions and carbon footprint to animal care and social responsibility, sustainability is how we do work and support local communities. It’s a broad topic and the MMPA sales team is working to understand what it means to our customers who all have their own internal initiatives.

When hearing about customer’s expectations about sustainability, I want to know that sustainability means something to the customer and the customer’s customers before signing a paper or checking a box to comply with their marketing initiatives. I want to know that their culture and their beliefs, along with their marketing, is why they have sustainability expectations.

There are customers that we sell to who authentically care about sustainability and they care about offering those products to consumers. If we are going to be successful in the future, we need to be successful in marketing in the future and ultimately, for the end consumers, sustainability is driving their purchasing decisions and will continue to even more so as the younger generations reach purchasing age.

Typically, discussions with customers focus on milk quality, first and foremost, 100 percent compliance in the FARM Animal Care Program and our service of supply. Following that, there are various pillars we talk about when we are selling. Sustainability, with the frequency with which it’s asked about, is ultimately becoming one of these supporting pillars that we are communicating to our customers. It’s allowing us to be as competitive as we can and help us command a better presence in the market.

It’s important to remember that sustainability itself must be sustainable – something that works for all parties and returns value to members. This all-encompassing approach is how we’ve developed the sustainability program at MMPA, making us responsible to both our members and our customers.

We are just in the beginning of moving in a sustainable direction to ensure a sustainable agriculture future. We can’t go from A to Z in a day, so right now we are in an area of discomfort. Overtime, we will be able to compile more information, compile more data and show more metrics to prove that sustainable practices are important and can return value to producers. However, sustainability never ends. It’s an ongoing process. We may have put a program in place, but it’s something that we have to work and live, and in my case, sell with every day and develop as we move along.

Ultimately, MMPA’s sustainability story gives us a competitive advantage and point of differentiation that we always look for on the sales side, because it can lead to added value and our ability to return more value to producers. Our work, our discussions with customers and awareness of consumer purchasing habits are evidence that sustainability is more than a buzzword and more than a trend, it’s here to stay and it’s going to be an important selling strategy that moves us into the future.

Learn more about MMPA’s sustainability program on page 22.