The American Dairy Association North East’s unveiled the 55th annual Butter Sculpture at The Great New York State Fair on Tuesday. This year’s sculpture is titled “Dairy Every Day is a Healthy Way – Keeping Kids’ Health on Track.”
According to the Association, the sculpture highlights the important nutritional role dairy foods play in helping brains, bones and bodies grow and features a train being conducted by a cow and carrying young passengers fueling up on dairy foods. Sculptors Jim Victor and Marie Pelton began to create the annual sculpture 11 days ago.
The Fair begins Wednesday and runs through Labor Day. The sculpture will be on display in the Dairy Products Building for the duration of The Fair.
The butter used for the sculpture comes from Batavia-based producer O-AT-KA Milk Products and is out of specification for retail sale for a variety of reasons, so American Dairy Association North East works with the sculptors to put it to good use by creating a beautiful piece of art.
Following its 13-day stint at The Fair, the butter will return to Western New York where it will be recycled into renewable energy at Noblehurst Farms, a dairy farm in Pavilion. Noblehurst Farm’s vast recycling program turns over 500 tons of food waste from supermarkets, universities, and schools each month into enough energy to power the farm and over 300 local homes. The recycling program not only reduces the farm’s carbon footprint, it diverts all of that food waste from landfills, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
