Organic Valley promoted Nicole Rakobitsch to director of sustainability, launching a new centralized department for the nation's largest farmer-owned dairy cooperative. While dairy faces questions around climate change and the impact of animal agriculture, Rakobitsch leads projects to improve the sustainability of organic family farms.
Rakobitsch has championed projects like a unique life cycle assessment (LCA), which tracks the impact of scope-3 emissions on Organic Valley farms in each region of the US, providing an unprecedented glimpse into the environmental impact of and solutions for family farms. Projects like the LCA will inform regional climate-smart farming plans and improve how Organic Valley approaches sustainability and climate change.
As Organic Valley's new director of sustainability, Rakobitsch will lead a team of professionals and integrate experts from across the cooperative and broader organic industry.
Rakobitsch lives and works on her small Wisconsin homestead powered by the wind and sun. In this new role, she will develop climate-smart farming programs and move Organic Valley into a more sustainable future through targeted work on-farm and throughout the cooperative.
