Motivated by their journey as Belgium immigrants turned American citizens, De Saegher Dairies launched Project FULL – Fuel Up Little Learners, a weekend nutrition program feeding hundreds of local schoolchildren. What began as a desire to give back has evolved into a movement aimed at ending childhood hunger – one backpack at a time.

At Penn State Extension’s Women in Dairy Conference held on Nov. 19, Joanna Shipp, a seventh-generation dairy farmer from Virginia and chair of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, reflected on what the next 20 years of dairy could look like in the U.S.

By most all accounts, 2024 was a remarkable time for the dairy industry. The question is, “Can 2025 match last year’s momentum?”

Progressive Dairy interviewed Will Loux, senior vice president of global economic affairs at National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), along with Paul Bleiberg, executive vice president of government relations at NMPF, to learn more about the economic outlook for the dairy industry in the coming year. 

In the past decade alone, domestic per-capita consumption of cheese is up 19% and per-capita butter consumption is up 18.1%.

Four national dairy leaders were featured at the Global Dairy Summit, held by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) on the expo grounds. The panel presentation covered the topics of global dairy product prospects, domestic dairy production and manufacturing trends, consumer dairy product purchasing patterns, and the future of dairy ingredients.