Mike McCloskey, owner of Fair Oaks Farms, has the goal of making Fair Oaks Farms a zero carbon-footprint dairy farm. He isn’t exactly sure how he is going to do it, but that is what he aspires to achieve.

"My goal is to have a zero-carbon-footprint dairy farm," McCloskey said. "I don't know how we'll get there yet, but that's the goal." McCloskey spoke last week at an event in downtown Chicago and his comments regarding his farm’s environmental ambitions reportedly drew overwhelming applause.

Fair Oaks Farms already touts its agricultural practices as being among the most sustainable in the sector. The agritourism attraction and large commercial farm runs its trucks and tour buses on cow manure. To achieve that, Fair Oaks Farms worked in partnership with diesel engine maker Cummins to turn cow manure into methane for use in the vehicles.