DFC honoured at World Dairy Summit

Oct 18, 2023

CHICAGO – Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) was honoured at the International Dairy Federation (IDF) Dairy Innovation Awards, which were handed out as part of the World Dairy Summit in Chicago, Illinois.

DFC’s “Net Zero by 2050 – We’re In” campaign won in IDF’s Innovation in Marketing & Communication Initiative Building Dairy category. Additionally, DFC’s digital “cow influencer,” Daisy, and her Mini-Games was recognized as a finalist in the same category.

“The honours received at the IDF Dairy Innovation Awards shine a spotlight on the Canadian dairy industry by recognizing its continuous innovation, both on and off the farm,” says David Wiens, president of Dairy Farmers of Canada. “These campaigns highlight the commitment and advances our sector is making towards net zero and we are proud to share real farmer success stories with our fellow Canadians.”

Last year, DFC committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and farmers are on their way there. The two campaigns recognized at the IDF Dairy Innovation Awards center on how Canada’s dairy farmers are committed to this objective. Through the “We’re In” campaign, DFC highlights new, innovative practices that showed Canadians some of the ways our industry is dedicated to a more sustainable future. “Daisy and her Mini-Games” help the same message reach younger consumers through a fun digital platform that engages while it informs.

Pamela Nalewajek, DFC’s Chief Marketing Officer, was on hand to accept the award in Chicago. “This recognition would not be possible without our hardworking dairy farmers, who strive day in, day out to feed the nation,” says Nalewajek. “Their efforts to blaze a trail for sustainable milk production are what make our marketing campaigns so effective.”

Congratulations are also in order to Lactanet and Semex who won in the Innovation in Climate Action category for developing the world’s first official genetic evaluation to decrease methane emissions in dairy cattle – a project which received funding from DFC.

The IDF Dairy Innovation Awards demonstrate and showcase innovative processes, practices and products within the global dairy sector that improve efficiency and contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

Source : Farmersforum

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”