IRVINE, Calif. – As a 1% for the Planet member, Good Culture, the premium cultured dairy brand that aims to make real healing foods available to all, has partnered with Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) to create the Path to Pasture program that will help support soil health and utilization of pasture on family dairy farms.
Through the Path to Pasture program with DFA’s sustainability team and associated nonprofits, funds from Good Culture will be leveraged to provide farmers with education on and access to sustainable, regenerative agriculture farming practices that are critical in delivering nutrient-dense foods to the masses. The Path to Pasture pilot program will initially be offered to farmers located in the Minnesota and Wisconsin milkshed that are interested in enhancing soil or pasture health. Initial outreach and commitments have begun in 2020 with implementation of new resources and processes to start in spring 2021. Consultations will continue through for mid-summer 2021 with implementation for those in the program to follow in the fall.
“At Good Culture, we are committed to creating good for people, animals and the planet, and soil health and regenerative agriculture plays a vital role in this,” said founder Jesse Merrill. “Through the Path to Pasture program and our partnership with DFA, we aim to support farmers by providing them access to regenerative agriculture farming resources which will create healthier soil; grow more nutrient-dense foods; ensure that our animals are outside on pasture; and sequester carbon.”
“DFA and our farm family-owners are committed to sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint,” says David Darr, senior vice president and chief strategy and sustainability officer at DFA. “Continuous improvements in soil health, including development of pasture, are important parts of our overall sustainability strategy. We are excited to establish Path to Pasture as a new program to educate, share best practices and promote continuous improvement with our members.”
Through Good Culture’s long-standing membership with 1% for the Planet, the brand also works with Kiss The Ground to provide access to scholarships for soil health training and testing. With each cup of organic Good Culture sold, 1 percent of the sales goes towards transitioning conventional farms to regenerative agriculture practices with a focus on planned grazing. Since 2017, 14 scholarships have been awarded to farmers and producers.
The Path to Pastures program announcement also comes soon after the brand announced it is a Certified B Corporation, This certification is reserved for businesses that are a force for good and dedicated to creating a more inclusive and sustainable economy at the highest standard. To learn more about Good Culture, please visit www.goodculture.com or follow along on Instagram at @good_culture.
About Good Culture:
Good Culture is on a mission to make real, healing foods available to all without hurting animals or the planet. Met with acclaim since the brand’s founding in 2015, Founders Jesse Merrill and Anders Eisner saw that cottage cheese, an overlooked and undervalued category, had the potential to be catapulted to the forefront of the real food trend, so they decided to shake up and reinvigorate the dairy aisle with the first certified organic, pasture-raised, stabilizer and additive-free cottage cheese. Good Culture leads the way with its organic, pasture-raised, high-protein, low-sugar, thick and creamy product that never uses gums, thickeners, or chemical preservatives. This disruptive company is dedicated to using only real foods and simple ingredients across their growing portfolio of cultured foods. The overwhelming success of their flagship product led to expansion into other cultured food offerings such as probiotic-rich sour cream.
About DFA:
Dairy Farmers of America is a national, farmer-owned dairy cooperative focusing on quality, innovation and the future of family dairies. While supporting and serving more than 13,000 family farm-owners, DFA manufactures a variety of dairy products, including fluid milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, dairy ingredients and more that connect our Cooperative’s family farms to family tables with regional brands such as Country Fresh, Meadow Gold, Friendly’s Ice Cream, Borden® Cheese, Plugra® Butter and Kemps® to name a few. On a global scale, we work with some of the world’s largest food companies to develop ingredients their customers are craving, while staying committed to social responsibility and ethical farming. For more information, please visit dfamilk.com.
