Straus Family Creamery

ABOUT

Founded in 1994, Straus Family Creamery is a mission-driven, family-owned-and-operated business dedicated to making premium organic dairy products, with minimal processing. The Straus Dairy Farm and Creamery, located in the small town of Marshall on the Northern California Coast, was the first certified organic dairy farm west of the Mississippi River and the first 100% certified organic creamery in the United States.

In addition to the Straus Dairy Farm, Straus Family Creamery buys certified organic, Non-GMO Project Verified milk from 11 other organic family farms in Northern California’s Marin and Sonoma Counties. The combination of rich soil, one of the nation’s most diverse grassland systems, and a mild coastal climate create the ideal setting for organic dairy farming. Land stewardship and sustainable farming are deeply rooted principles in certified organic farming practices.

ORGANIC – INNOVATIVE FARMING BEFORE ITS TIME

In the late 1970s, after completing his Bachelor’s degree in Dairy Sciences at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Albert Straus returned to his family’s dairy farm.

Albert took over the management of the dairy farm with his father and quickly realized that innovative solutions were needed to secure the future of family farming in California and to maintain responsible stewardship of the land.

The family had stopped using herbicides on the farm in the mid-1970s, and in the early 1980s, Albert replaced tilling fields, used to grow silage, with a no-till method of planting, to prevent soil erosion and reduce fuel consumption. He also stopped using chemical fertilizers (which had been minimal for decades) in the mid-1980s.

To bring food waste back into the system for cows, Albert sourced cow feeds from creative and unusual places, such as orange peel and pulp from a family-owned fresh orange juice factory in San Francisco, and rice sake waste from a local distillery.

Over the course of several decades, a manure wastewater pond system was implemented and improved beyond state and federal requirements. This enabled the dairy to use manure solids to be naturally composted and used as fertilizer, and to turn manure liquids back into nutrient-rich water for irrigation of pastures.

CLIMATE + FARM: INNOVATING FOR TOMORROW

Renewable energy is one of the focuses of the Straus Dairy Farm’s sustainable model. At the dairy farm, the methane biodigester captures methane (a potent greenhouse gas) from the cows’ manure and transforms it into electricity. Operating since 2004, the methane digester provides enough renewable energy to power the entire dairy farm, charge Albert Straus’ electric car and other farm vehicles.

Poop to Power — Cow Manure Methane Fuels the Straus Dairy Farm

In 2020, the biodigester has significantly reduced methane emissions by more than 700 metric tons of CO2e—equivalent to eliminating the annual greenhouse gas emissions from about 150 passenger cars.

Dairy farmers in California are facing pressure to lower methane emissions under the state’s ambitious new greenhouse gas reduction laws, which include manure methane emission reduction targets of 40% below 2013 levels by 2030. The state’s Air Resources Board suggests much of that reduction should come from converting methane from cow manure into energy.