Photo: Braden Egli on Unsplash.
A family dairy farm in the Netherlands that said goodbye to its cows and now makes yogurt from soybeans has won the very first Plant Based Leadership Award from Compassion in World Farming (CIWF). The award went to De Nieuwe Melkboer ("The New Milkman"), run by brothers Tom and Bart Grobben, at the charity's Farm Animal Welfare Awards ceremony in Brussels on Wednesday, November 4.
The farm in Enschede, in the eastern region of Twente, has been in the Grobben family for more than five generations and long supplied milk to the Dutch dairy giant FrieslandCampina. According to CIWF, the brothers have turned the former cow barns into a facility for making plant-based yogurt, using soy grown on their own land and bought from local farmers. CIWF said the business shows how farmers can respond to rising demand for plant-based food and the need to rely less on animal-sourced foods.
The brothers sowed their first soy field in 2016, which the family describes as the first soy harvest ever in Twente, and made their first batch of soy milk with the help of a YouTube video. In 2022, with 75 dairy cows still on the farm, they decided to go all in on plants: the herd was sold, the milk was collected for the last time, and by 2023 the first plant-based dairy farm in the Netherlands was a reality.
Tom Grobben, who studied at Wageningen University, explained where the idea came from:
Meat and dairy have a huge impact on the climate. You face all that as a farmer. In Wageningen, you are confronted with the facts, but your eyes are also opened about what is possible. Among other things, you learn that growing plant-based food is actually much more efficient. As a farmer, you are an entrepreneur at the same time, so you look for future prospects.
Saying goodbye to the animals was emotional for the whole family, Tom told ProVeg Netherlands in March, but he has no doubts about the choice (translated from Dutch):
It was the end of an era, but for us it felt like the right step. [...] Because we went off the beaten track, we now have something we are many times prouder of. If farmers' sons and daughters are given the room to choose what they enjoy themselves, it really won't always be keeping animals. I'm sure of that.
The yogurt has gone mainstream too. In February 2025 the Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo launched three soy yogurts from the brothers, made from the whole bean so nothing is wasted and the fiber stays in. The brothers' own range now comes in natural, vanilla, forest fruit and mango.
Why does it matter? Livestock supply chains account for 14.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Every farm that grows food for people instead of feed for animals is a step in the right direction, and it's even better when the farmers themselves lead the way.
This is the latest in a long line of farms and businesses choosing to evolve, ditching dairy and making more environmental and ethical choices. Back in 2017 a 90-year-old New York dairy ditched cow's milk for plant milks, the same month a London cafe completely ditched dairy after watching a YouTube video. Scientists have since shown that phasing out animal farming could deliver half the emission cuts needed to hold warming to 2C, and only last week the COP31 climate summit set a 60% meat-free menu target.
The new milkmen are here, and they're powered by plants.