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Hail to the new chief
FoodBev Media

FoodBev Media

9 December 2008

Hail to the new chief

The new president will be faced with a range of important issues, not least of which will be the oncoming global recession, as governments attempt to deal with the downturn in world economies and the collapse of the banking sector that is bringing considerable pressure to bear on companies of all sizes. All this on top of the recent rises in food and energy prices.

Other important issues will include the environment and the need to cut down the carbon footprint, the growing importance of alternative fuels and the need to cut down on waste and improve our recycling performance.

And then, of course, there's legislation. The new president will surely be mindful of how governments around the world have introduced legislation that has a profound effect on the efficient operation of important businesses, not least of which is businesses in the dairy industry.

So it is that we welcome Canada’s Richard Doyle as president of the International Dairy Federation. (Sorry, did you think I was talking about someone else?)

Doyle, who is currently executive director of Dairy Farmers of Canada, took over as IDF president at the recent IDF Global Dairy Summit in Mexico. He succeeds the UK’s Jim Begg who has completed his four-year term.

Keeping doom and gloom at bay

I spoke to Jim about two weeks before the Mexico event. When we were talking about the need for the dairy industry to get the health message about milk and dairy products across to the consumer, he said we must aim for a situation “where governments never have an opportunity to advise consumers not to consume dairy products for either nutritional or environmental reasons”.

And with the current volatility caused by the global economic downturn, he warned that we must not allow the doom and gloom merchants to prevail. If we do “it shatters confidence and you enter a vicious circle”.

As we approach a new year, we should make those two aims part of any list of new year resolutions.

We mustn't take our eye off the ball, because there are detractors out there who will use any opportunity and any excuse to undermine this industry of ours. Show them, in the words of Jim Begg’s Dairy UK campaign, that you are ‘Proud of Dairy’.

I'm tempted to paraphrase a famous quote from another president, and this time it is an American president who took office nearly 50 years ago: Ask not what dairy can do for you – ask what you can do for dairy.

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