Roelof Joosten, chairman of the Dutch Dairy Association: ‘Cooperation is essential for the circular dairy economy’

Sustainable food supply requires a transition to a circular economy. The Dutch government is preparing a vision for accelerating this transition. During the mini-symposium ‘From chain to cycle’ organised by the Dutch Dairy Association, Roelof Joosten showed as chairman of the Dutch Dairy Association which circular elements are already present in the dairy economy and which challenges are still there to take up. Ton van der Wijst of the Social and Economic Council and Trudy Rood of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency presented their visions on the circular economy in The Hague.

The Dutch dairy sector is traditionally partly based on a circular economy already. In the Netherlands, cows often graze on sandy and peaty soils that are unsuitable for agriculture. Doing this, the cows convert grass into milk and so provide us with food containing high-quality proteins.

Closing the cycle and making optimum use of residual flows has already been aimed at in the processing of dairy for decades. For instance, whey, a by-product of cheese, was previously used as an ingredient for animal feed, but it is currently a high-quality basic material for all types of consumer products. Water is increasingly reused in the dairy plants and green (bio)gas and green current are often used, the latter preferably generated by the dairy farmers themselves.

By fermenting or refining cows’ manure into valuable final products, such as biogas, minerals and compost, the cycle can be closed even further, according to Roelof Joosten. ‘We as dairy sector cannot do this on our own’, Joosten gave the audience as food for thought. ‘We have to closely cooperate with companies outside the dairy sector as well as with suppliers of technology, knowledge institutes and governments. There is a healthy business case for fermenting and refining manure. However, this requires cooperation with the appropriate parties in order to develop the market for circular products, such as minerals, compost and biogas.’