2024 May Board Book

2024 - 2028 CDRF Strategic Plan

FOCUS AREA: SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Industry Challenge: Consumers are increasingly well-informed, with responsible food production gaining prominence in food purchasing choices of all types, including dairy. Beyond environmental stewardship, subjects around animal care, labor welfare, and antibiotic use are current key areas of consumer interest. Other areas are likely to arise. Food safety and farm security, including cyber-security are ongoing priority areas. There is a growing demand for higher levels of documentation of protective actions and continuous improvement to bolster consumer awareness of and confidence in the industry’s implementation of best practices. At the same time, a biosecurity event for the California industry, with its export dependency, would have profound economic implications. Prevention and preparedness for such an event is crucial for long-term viability. Focus: With a risk management perspective, CDRF will fund activities that: • Help dairy farmers continue to adopt and/or improve best animal care practices • Reduce the incidence of animal diseases of importance to the California dairy industry • Enable industry prevention and preparation for a biosecurity event • Minimize the risks of a food safety incident and/or minimize residues (e.g. antibiotics) in Approach: CDRF will support the adoption of and continuous improvement in on-farm best management practices. It will continue to work through CDQAP and other appropriate projects and partners to provide local support for programs such as the National Dairy FARM Program which establishes dairy animal welfare guidelines. CDRF will look for further collaborative opportunities with CDFA program specialists, industry representatives, and UC experts in the food safety and biosecurity event risk management areas. It will also work with CMAB, California Farm Bureau, state and local sheriffs, and others on farm security education and incident matters. With input from the Social Responsibility Advisory Committee (SRAC), CDRF will monitor and assimilate existing science as part of its high-level comprehensive research plan. Through this process it will identify current scientific information available as well as areas of unanswered questions/gaps in knowledge. CDRF will prioritize funding for projects that fill these recognized scientific knowledge gaps of defined interest and need. dairy products that may be detrimental to human health • Bolster farm security to minimize dairy economic losses • Support and document appropriate labor management practices • Evaluate biodiversity improvement opportunities

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