Geoff Platt is a freelance editor & journalist, specialising in dairy. This is a personal blog and views expressed are his own.

30 May 2012

Will you be celebrating World Milk Day?

World Milk Day takes place on 1 June 2012 and provides an opportunity to focus attention on milk and to publicise activities connected with milk and the milk industry.

The first World Milk Day was held in 2001 and began when FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) was asked to propose a specific day on which all aspects of milk could be celebrated. Many countries have participated in the celebrations and the number is growing each year.

Among the activities taking place, and reported on the FAO email network:

  • FrieslandCampina has posted a video on YouTube.
  • Nigerian dairy company Nutricima has organised a schools debating competition.
  • The United Arab Emirates has launched the School Milk Project, an Anchor-led initiative.
  • Finland organised a seminar Around the World along with Milk and Music introducing the different ways milk is used in different countries, with opera singer Jyrki Anttila performing songs from those countries.
  • In Latin America, a range of celebratory posters has been published.
  • In Malaysia, Dutch Lady – a subsidiary of Royal FrieslandCampina - is collaborating with the Olympic Council of Malaysia to support four Malaysian athletes going to the London 2012 Olympics. Local celebrity Faizal Tahir is also lending support by performing his new song, Go Malaysia Go, to the Malaysian Olympic contingent at the World Milk Day launch event.

Dairy Innovation will include more coverage of World Milk Day events, but what will you be doing? Please let us know.

Geoff Platt is editor of Dairy Innovation magazine.