A trailblazer awarded on the eve of a new ground-breaking mission

THE Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF) recently anointed its annual ‘Legends’, and Simon Schulz, founder of Schulz Organic Dairy in Timboon, Victoria, was awarded the HostPlus Trailblazer award.

The accolade comes on the eve of Simon launching a crowdfunding campaign that aims to create significant change in the industry.

The MFWF ‘Legend’ honours are bestowed to people who have given an extended service and outstanding contribution, through innovation and education, to the Victorian food and wine industry.

The HostPlus Trailblazer Award is presented to an individual 40 years or younger who is actively engaged in the industry and has made an outstanding contribution to its advancement.

Picking up the baton from his grandfather, MFWF Legend Hermann Schulz of Timboon Cheese, Simon is the driving force behind Schulz Organic Dairy.

Establishing the business at just 21 years old, Simon has created a brand that is sought after for its principles and purity.

The HostPlus Trailblazer Award is recognition of Simon leading a regenerative path for fellow dairy farmers, value-adding and revolutionising wasteful packaging and distribution practices.

In early August, Simon will further manifest his vision, launching a crowdfunding campaign to broaden the footprint of his latest sustainable initiative – milk in returnable, refillable glass bottles.

After a trial phase at Farmers’ Markets where his hand-filled and hand-labelled 1 litre glass-bottled organic milk remains a weekly sell-out, it is time to take it to the next step – scaling the initiative into retail.

This requires greater automation, and the crowd-funding campaign aims to raise enough funding to enable the purchase of the necessary and costly infrastructure.

“With the equivalent of 2.5 billion 1L plastic bottles of milk used and discarded in Australia each year1, it’s an issue that needs some urgent redress,” Mr Schulz said.

“We no longer want to contribute to this mess and we needed to find a better way.

“My hope is that this initiative can pave the way for other milk producers to follow suit.”

With a bold master plan of eliminating plastic bottle use altogether, Schulz Organic Dairy will increase the proportion of their product in glass to 3,000 litres/week and then 10,000 litres/week.

At this scale, Schulz moves from supplying the “true believers” at farmers’ markets to offering milk in refillable glass bottles to more consumers through mainstream retailers.

The project has the potential to reduce single-use plastic waste by 20 tonnes per year.