At the end of 2024, Janet Jakes, the (fictional) vice president for sustainability with Nestlé USA, needed to recommend a path forward for the Feed in Focus program. The program was a partnership with Syngenta and The Nature Conservancy to support dairy farmers in Idaho, Wisconsin, and Michigan in implementing sustainable feed management, forage production, and regenerative agricultural practices. The pilot program aimed to demonstrate that it was possible to produce milk more sustainably while maintaining or even improving farm profitability.
The dairy farming industry was very carbon intensive and Nestlé’s dairy supply chain was the single largest contributor to its Scope 3 emissions. The Feed in Focus program was part of Nestlé’s strategy to improve the sustainability of its dairy supply chain, but the program’s subsidy-based and resource-intensive structure would be difficult to scale up. Jakes’ recommendations could shape Nestlé’s progress towards its Net Zero goals, as well as the future of sustainable dairy production at Nestlé and beyond.