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By: Iida Alasentie and Silvia Gaiani, University of Helsinki Ruralia Institute The climate conditions in Finland and other Nordic countries are known to be challenging due to the change of seasons and short-lasting summers. When the growing season of different crops is somewhere between 125 and 180 days, it influences the structure of Finnish farming.…

Taru Lindblom, Vilja Lukkarinen and Sami Koponen This blog post explores the cultural role of dairy products and the Finns’ strong relationship with milk by looking at an empirical case of heated online debate sparked by an oat milk company Oatly’s campaign. The campaign was launched in late 2020 in Finland by sending a leaflet…

Walter Kiptoo Kiplagat and Annemie Maertens Between June and November 2023, the UK Smart Dairy project team ran a series of fascinating consumer experiments at the University of Sussex’s behavioral laboratory. Our mission: to delve into the minds of dairy consumers in the UK, tapping into their preferences, values, knowledge on smart dairy technologies, and…

Mari Niva, Iida Alasentie, Silvia Gaiani and Sami Koponen In Finland, the most active forum for researchers focusing on environmental issues from a social science perspective is the Finnish Society for Environmental Social Science (YHYS). One of the yearly activities of the society is the YHYS Colloquium, an international scientific meeting bringing together practitioners and…

Julian Worley In October, the SmartDairy team convened in Bologna, Italy, to review the project’s progress, upcoming tasks, and future events. Hosted by the Italian research team, this meeting brought together representatives from all four country teams. The meeting began with introductions as it was the first time some researchers had met in person since…

Fabio Bartolini Dairy production is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from this sector. Identifying potential mitigation options and the trajectory of diary system transformation is at the top of policy and academic debates. It was discussed among the agricultural economist communities during…

Sara Hall* and Walter Kiptoo Kiplagat* In February 2023, the UK Smart Dairy team led a series of zoom interviews with eight what-we-termed ‘model farmers’, early adopters of climate smart technologies and practices. After these, the research team was invited to visit these dairy farms across the UK, from the West Country to the Lake…

Iida Alasentie and Silvia Gaiani The Finnish SmartDairy team with the lead of Ruralia Institute organised a Stakeholder Workshop for the Finnish dairy stakeholders on 8th of March 2023. Many of the participants were experts in research and development but also several dairy company representatives and advisors of food and dairy companies took part in…

Mari Niva and Minna Autio In Western countries, the discourses on dairy production and consumption have historically included a variety of political, economic, nutritional, public health, and risk related concerns. In contemporary societies, dairy products are still loaded with multiple and contrasting expectations and cultural meanings. Depending on the perspective, dairy products can be seen…

Zoe Barker Project Partners in the UK have been working with a wide range of dairy industry stakeholders to understand how the industry is innovating to achieve climate change objectives and identify innovations that can be adopted to reduce the carbon footprint of the industry. They have also been discussing these innovations with consumers to…