Attempts by the dairy industry to improve its environmental performance worldwide will be scrutinised at a conference starting in Auckland on Monday.
About 2000 dairy industry leaders from 66 countries will attend the four-day World Dairy Summit.
The summit is an annual event organised by the 107-year-old International Dairy Federation, a trans-national lobby group based in Brussels.
It is being held in New Zealand for the first time since 2001 and the focus this year is sustainability.
Dairying has long been accused of using too much water and producing too much greenhouse gas.
The conference will hear from various speakers that the industry is improving efficiency and is a vital source of traded wealth and personal nutrition, but must become more sustainable.
Convenor Andy Williams says the programme reflects the much greater attention that the dairy industry is giving to sustainable farming practices and environmental issues.
The summit includes nine conferences, workshops and a dairy leaders' forum covering farming, economics, markets, science and technology, nutrition and environmental issues.
It includes a session updating developments in the Global Dairy Agenda for Climate Change signed at last year's summit in Berlin.
