Resilient dairy: socio-technical innovation for dairy resilience and sustainability

该项目将探索使乳制品系统更有利于自然环境和农民生计的新方法，同时在面对气候变化等不可预测的挑战时，以合理的价格保持乳制品的长期供应。为此，我们将把最新的自然、社会、生物和兽医科学与行业专业知识和经验丰富的农民知识相结合，设计和测试创新，以提高奶牛养殖在快速变化的世界中的弹性和可持续性。挑战仅英国就拥有世界第十大乳制品行业，生产欧盟14%的牛奶，占全球牛奶产量的2%以上。可持续的乳制品行业必须改善或保持水、生物多样性和土壤质量，满足社会期望，为农民提供生计，并为消费者提供可获得和负担得起的乳制品。然而，一些重要的变化威胁着该行业的长期未来。近年来，英国乳制品行业的利润率一直很低，有时甚至为负，而投入成本高企、零售商之间的竞争、全球供应过剩，以及自2014年以来俄罗斯实施的乳制品进口禁令，又加剧了这一局面。乳制品生产依赖于自然，但如果管理不善，可能会侵蚀它所依赖的自然资本，例如污染河流。乳制品系统也需要大量的水，因此很容易受到气候变化导致的水资源供应和质量下降的影响，而且它们也很容易受到蜱虫或昆虫传播的新的动物疾病的引入。为了使系统能够适应这些未来的变化，并使其具有可持续性和社会责任，我们需要了解乳制品生产、动物健康和它们所依赖的自然生态系统之间的复杂联系。我们的方法我们将通过与英格兰北部和苏格兰南部的奶农合作，研究乳制品行业主要参与者制定并应用的一系列创新、实用的措施来实现这一目标，这些措施旨在改善动物健康和牛奶产量，同时改善自然环境。这将包括使用雀巢正在试点的新定价模式，奖励更可持续的生产决策，使农民能够更有效地适应未来的变化，从而保证乳制品长期供应给制造商。我们还将研究一系列其他创新干预措施，我们将与农民和其他利益相关者合作开发这些干预措施，例如松动压实土壤的新技术和精准农业方法。由于英国脱欧后可能会减少或停止对奶农的直接支付，因此改善该行业的财务和环境可持续性至关重要且及时。该项目结合了尖端的社会、经济、自然、生物和兽医科学，与英国的行业合作伙伴密切合作，确定和测试新的方法。这项工作将为地方政府、Defra（特别是为他们即将到来的两个25年计划提供依据）和第三部门提供证据，为英国脱欧后的食品、农业和环境政策提供信息，并将支持政府在乳制品行业提供重大、应通报或新出现的动物疾病预警方面发挥作用。我们将使用计算机模型和国际利益相关者网络，为国际行业确定经验教训。

This project will explore new ways to make dairy systems better for the natural environment and farmers' livelihoods, while maintaining the long-term supply of dairy products at reasonable prices in the face of unpredictable challenges like climate change. We will do this by combining the latest natural, social, biological and veterinary science with industry expertise and experiential farmer knowledge, to devise and test innovations that could increase the resilience and sustainability of dairy farming in a rapidly changing world.THE CHALLENGEThe UK alone has the tenth largest dairy sector in the world, producing 14 percent of the EU's milk and representing over two per cent of global milk production. A sustainable dairy industry must improve or maintain water, biodiversity and soil quality, meet social expectations, offer farmers a livelihood and provide accessible and affordable dairy products to consumers. However, a number of important changes threaten the long-term future of the sector. The UK dairy industry has suffered from low and sometimes negative profit margins in recent years, worsened by high input costs, competition between retailers, global oversupply and, since 2014, Russian dairy import bans. Dairy production depends on nature but, if poorly managed, can erode the natural capital upon which it depends, for example by polluting rivers. Dairy systems also use a lot of water, and so are vulnerable to reductions in water availability and quality caused by climate change, and they are also vulnerable to the introduction of new animal diseases transmitted by ticks or insects. In order to make systems resilient to these future changes, and to make them sustainable and socially responsible, we need to understand the complex links between dairy production, animal health, and the natural ecosystems upon which they depend. OUR APPROACHWe will do this by investigating a range of innovative, practical measures developed with, and applied by, major players in the dairy industry in collaboration with dairy farmers in the north of England and south of Scotland, that are designed to improve animal health and milk production while improving the natural environment. This will include the use of new pricing models being piloted by Nestle that reward more sustainable production decisions and enable farmers to adapt more effectively to future change, so guaranteeing the long-term supply of dairy products to manufacturers. We will also investigate a range of other innovative interventions, which we will develop in collaboration with farmers and other stakeholders, for example new techniques for loosening compacted soils and methods from precision agriculture. With the possibility of a post-Brexit reduction or cessation of direct payments to dairy farmers it is critical and timely to improve both financial and environmental sustainability in the sector. The project combines cutting edge social, economic, natural, biological and veterinary science to identify and test new approaches in close collaboration with industry partners in the UK. The work will provide evidence to the devolved administrations, Defra (notably feeding into their two forthcoming 25-year plans) and the third sector to inform post-Brexit policy on food, farming and environmental policy, and will support the Government's role in providing early warning of major, notifiable or new and emerging animal diseases in the dairy sector. We will use computer models and an international stakeholder network to identify lessons for the industry internationally.