Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative announced a pair of changes to its sustainability team. Carrie Carroll has joined the cooperative as director of climate-smart. Also Jamie Fisher has been promoted to senior project manager for the cooperative’s climate-smart project.
The moves mark the start of the cooperative’s $50 million grant project through the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. Edge is leading a multi-
partner project aimed at expanding climate-smart markets across multiple states. It is also aimed at creating dairy and beet sugar as climate-smart commodities. Carroll will lead the project.
“I am excited for this next chapter,” said Carroll. “This project will help us work directly with farmers and also reduce carbon impacts. It allows us to improve water quality and build a more environmentally as well as financially sustainable food chain.”
Carroll most recently served as sustainability strategy leader for the University of
Wisconsin Population Health Institute. She has also served in various roles since 2014. She brings knowledge in national grant administration as well as management of teams. Carroll is a proud alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also attended the University of Washington where she received her master’s in public policy.
The cooperative is also promoting Jamie Fisher to senior project manager of climate-smart. Fisher has been working with Edge as project manager, leading multiple farmer-led watershed conservation groups along with Edge’s sister organization, Farmers for Sustainable Food.
“I’m excited to take a bigger role with Edge’s sustainability work,” said Fisher. “It’s an honor to work alongside farmers to measure their impact and share the great work they do every day.”
Edge’s project will build off a new Framework for Farm-Level Sustainability Projects. This helps farmers determine what climate-smart production practices are most effective for their farms. It also provides tools to document the environmental as well as financial effects. The framework is currently being applied in projects involving farmers and others in the dairy food supply chain across the Upper Midwest.
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