Beemster cheese cattle farmers switch to GMO-free feed

By 2020, all cheese guaranteed GMO-free

Beemster cheese, has been making strides for many years in making the chain sustainable from cow to cheese, the next step in sustainability is guaranteed GMO-free cheese. Chairman of the farmers' cooperative Klaas Sluis: " Sustainability is a high priority in our cooperative. The cows of our farmers mainly eat grass. To keep them in top condition, they are given supplementary feed when necessary. Our dairy farmers are now switching to certified GMO-free concentrates. This means that their feed is guaranteed to contain no elements that are genetically modified. By 2020, we can proudly say that all of our cheese is made GMO-free."

Successful pilot
With the Caring Dairy program, the 460 dairy farmers of the Beemster farming cooperative have been making their farms more sustainable for 10 years under the motto; happy cows, happy farmers, happy planet. Among other things, this has resulted in the highest percentage of grazing in the Netherlands and the development of the KoeKompas. Over the past 12 months the farmers have gained experience with GMO-free feeding and with separate collection and processing of this milk stream. All according to the so-called VLOG certification. The abbreviation VLOG stands for Verband Lebensmittel Ohne Gentechnik. For dairy farmers, this means that dairy cows are not allowed to eat feed containing Genetically Modified Organisms, as can occur, for example, in soy grown outside Europe. Fresh grass and home-grown roughage are all GMO-free.
Grietsje Hoekstra, sustainability manager at Beemster says, "Last June we evaluated the pilot and cut and tasted the first deliciously malleable 'VLOG cheese' on site. With the knowledge and experience gained from the pilot among the first farmers, we can now start scaling up until all our cooperative members are VLOG certified.

GMO-free feeding is rewarded with premium
Joost Ruijter, dairy farmer; " The pilot on our farm was a success. I am very satisfied with the health and production of the dairy cows with the new GMO-free feed. The fact that our cows are out in the meadow a lot and already eat a lot of grass makes it less complicated to take this step. But of course it is an extra effort, which our cooperative cheese rewards with an extra premium. That makes it possible to become more and more sustainable."