Description
This paper addresses the contribution of dairy to climate change. Dairy is a complicated and unique agricultural driver of climate change. It combines both biogenic sources of emissions with the carbon intensity of industry. Major dairy producers also vary significantly across the world. They range from extractivist agribusiness producing for the world market, to small-scale farmers supplying vast quantities of local milk. The global diversity of dairy means it defies straightforward climate solutions. The problem, however, is that dominant policy narratives approach dairy’s climate mitigation efforts through the narrow frame of efficiency improvements.
To address this, our paper theorises three distinct ‘dairy-climate regimes’ and the specific climate mitigation and adaptation challenges they face. To do so, we analyse three case studies of Aotearoa New Zealand, California, and Uttar Pradesh. All three cases are major centres of world dairy production and, therefore, sources of emissions. But the profiles of these emissions vary considerably. To explain this, we draw on the tradition of critical agrarian studies to categorise them as distinct ‘climate-dairy regimes’. We analyse the intersecting dimensions of agrarian class structures, global market integration, and governance frameworks to classify these regimes. Ultimately, our paper reveals how just climate transitions in the dairy sector must go beyond the solutionism of efficiency savings and instead address the diverse global complexities of agrarian politics.
