Growing Returns

Unlocking the black box of agricultural supply chains

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: April 7, 2016

Jennifer Schmitt, Ph.D, lead scientist of the NorthStar initiative at the University of Minnesota.

The corn supply chain is a complex, ever-changing, and often unpredictable system. Measuring the environmental impacts of grain production can be just as complex and daunting – especially with thousands of players involved.

Understanding corn’s environmental footprint is fundamental to generating solutions that help farmers improve efficiencies and reduce fertilizer losses and hold companies accountable for meeting and measuring the success of their sustainability goals.

That’s why EDF partnered with the University of Minnesota’s Northstar Initiative for Sustainable Enterprise to develop a feed grain transport model that estimates emissions from grain farming. Northstar is a program within the university’s Institute on the Environment, which has deep expertise in the complex agricultural supply chain and is able to connect the dots between products on the shelves and their environmental impacts. As I’ve blogged before, EDF believes this kind of increased transparency is good for consumers and businesses themselves.

I asked Jennifer Schmitt, Ph.D, lead scientist of the NorthStar initiative, to elaborate on the team’s research and on the importance of data collection and measurement in agriculture.
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Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged agriculture, climate change, corn, ecosystems, farmers, farms, fertilizer, meat, Minnesota, nutrient efficiency, Partnerships, supply chain, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, transparency | Comments are closed

USDA gives big boost to sustainable farming in North Carolina

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: March 31, 2016

Environmental Defense Fund’s efforts to improve sustainable farming practices through the grain supply chain received another boost, thanks to a USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) grant of $500,000 in North Carolina.

The award supports EDF’s collaboration with Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, and brings in university and grower organization partners. In 2014, Smithfield’s hog production division made a commitment to engage 75 percent of its grain sourcing acres, or about half a million acres, in sustainable farming practices by 2018. These practices reduce fertilizer losses to the water and air, thereby improving water quality and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2015, through a sustainability program called MBGro, Smithfield helped farmers plant cover crops, use efficient nitrogen sensors, and employ other conservation practices on nearly 100,000 acres in the Southeast. Earlier this year, the company announced the expansion of its sustainable grain program to its Midwest sourcing region with ag retailer United Suppliers.

And now, the RCPP project officially kicks off this week – and will directly engage producers to expand conservation practices in agriculture. Here’s what it entails. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Tagged agriculture, conservation tillage, cover crops, ecosystems, environmental defense fund, Farm Bureau, fertilizer, GHG emissions, grain, NC State, NCGA, North Carolina, Partnerships, Pork Council, RCPP, Smithfield Foods, SUSTAIN, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, tillage, U.S. Department of Agriculture, UNC, United Suppliers, USDA, water quality, western water | Read 2 Responses

Animal feed is at the heart of grain sustainability

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: February 23, 2016

Building my energy-efficient home in North Carolina.

My passion for improving the food system for the health of my family, my fellow citizens and our planet is in my genes.

My grandmother ran a natural foods business out of her kitchen in the 1950s, a time when the country was moving towards more processed food. My parents, who took me on annual Earth Day trash walks to pick up garbage alongside the road by our house, instilled in me a deep respect for the environment. My mother, a teacher, also started a composting and gardening program at her school that incorporates what the students grow into the school menus.

I draw on my family’s heritage in my life and work. That’s why I’m proud to be part of the team that helped Smithfield Foods establish and deploy a program to improve the sustainability of the grains they feed their hogs.

EDF and Smithfield don’t agree on everything, but we do agree that farmers growing animal feed have an important role to play in reducing the climate and water impacts of agriculture.

Here’s why a career focused on feed grain sustainability is a perfect fit for me – and why I believe that momentum in animal feed sustainability is a great way for protein companies across the supply chain to make tangible improvements to air and water quality. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Tagged agriculture, conservation, corn, ecosystems, environmental defense fund, farmers, farming, farms, fertilizer, food, food production, Partnerships, Smithfield Foods, sustainability, sustainable agriculture | Comments are closed

Meet the young Smithfield agronomist who’s turning the feed grain industry on its head

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: January 7, 2016

EDF's Katie Anderson (left), Rachel Carr (center), and EDF's Maggie Monast (right) explore how Smithfield can use SUSTAIN in their Midwest sourcing areas.

EDF’s Katie Anderson (left), Rachel Carr (center), and EDF’s Maggie Monast (right) explore how Smithfield can use SUSTAIN in the company’s Midwest sourcing areas.

Forty million acres of U.S. land are dedicated to growing corn for animal feed. That’s roughly the land equivalent of the state of Florida. As the global demand for meat swells, so does the demand for feed grains.

Growing this corn requires a lot of fertilizer, yet up to 50 percent of fertilizer applied is lost, leading to air and water pollution as well as high costs for farmers.

MBGro, an innovative sustainability program developed by Smithfield Foods’ Hog Production Division, is helping solve this problem. MBGro offers free agronomic consultation to farmers, with a goal of keeping more nitrogen in fields and out of waterways, while maximizing profits along the way.

As a story in today’s Farm Journal noted, “Smithfield … hopes 75% of its grain sourcing acreage in the Southeast and Midwest will participate in [MBGro] by 2018.”

At the heart of MBGro is 25-year old agronomist Rachel Carr. I asked Rachel to tell me about her passion for sustainable agriculture, why she believes MBGro is a model for other protein companies, and about how cover crops played a role in her recent engagement. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged agronomy, animal feed, ecosystems, EDF, farming, feed grains, fertilizer, Murphy Brown, North Carolina, Smithfield Foods, SUSTAIN, sustainable agriculture, United Suppliers | Read 1 Response

5 steps to move food production from transparency to sustainability

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: December 1, 2015

Credit: Flickr user Brian Talbot

A new survey from the Center for Food Integrity suggests that transparency is no longer optional for food companies. Consumers want to know what’s in their food, where it’s from, and how its production helps or harms the planet.

“Consumers increasingly expect their favorite brands to assure more than quality and safety,” said the center’s CEO, Charlie Arnot. “They now expect those brands to assure the supply chain is also transparent.”

Transparency will bring companies’ environmental impacts to light– which can then motivate improvement. But it doesn’t guarantee sustainability – especially when it comes to agriculture. That’s because it’s up to food companies themselves to do the heavy lifting – to address the actual environmental impacts of food production.

For food companies to reach their sustainability goals, transparency is often just the first step. Here’s what follows. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Tagged agriculture, Center for Food Integrity, climate change, ecosystems, farmers, fertilizer, food production, food security, GHG mitigation, nitrogen, nutrient efficiency, Partnerships, Smithfield, sustainable agriculture, Unilever, United Suppliers, Walmart, water quality | Read 1 Response

3 reasons food companies should track emissions from their supply chains

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: September 17, 2015

Few professions require as close attention to the weather as farming. Extreme temperatures, floods, drought, and storms are the quickest way for a promising crop to turn into a total loss. That’s why it is surprising that a new report from the environmental data organization CDP shows food companies largely ignore their agricultural supply chains when making climate commitments. Less than 25 percent of the companies reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) data are accounting for indirect emissions from fertilizer, manure, or deforestation.

There are various reasons why so few food companies extend climate commitments to their full supply chains – global supply chains are complex and it can be difficult to trace product components back to their origins.

But failure to account for agricultural emissions is problematic. As the CDP report noted, at least 10 percent of global GHG emissions are unaccounted for, meaning food companies are lacking important insight into climate risks in their supply chains.

Here are three reasons why food companies should invest the time and energy required to take this step: Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Tagged agriculture, CDP, climate change, ecosystems, emissions, farmers, fertilizer, food, food production, GHG mitigation, greenhouse gas, Smithfield Foods, supply chain, sustainable agriculture, transparency | Comments are closed

How cover crops can help growers beat droughts and floods

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: July 22, 2015

Cover crops can include grasses like cereal rye.

Corn is trying to fight this summer’s extreme weather, and unfortunately, the weather is winning.

There are serious floods in the Midwest, devastating droughts in California, and brutal heat waves along the eastern seaboard. Ohio for example had a record June rainfall of 11 inches, which stunted corn roots and prevented many growers from planting any corn crops. In Northwest Ohio alone, 100,000 acres were left unplanted. At the same time, places in my home state of North Carolina experienced a June heat wave during the critical corn pollination period, significantly damaging corn yields.

These extreme weather events leave many farmers searching for ways to make the best of a challenging growing season. Although June’s weather was the opposite in Ohio and North Carolina, cover crops offer a proven solution to deal with both conditions. Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged agriculture, California agriculture, California drought, cash crop, climate change, conservation, Conservation Technology Information Center, corn, cover crop, crops, drought, ecosystems, farm, farmer, fertilizer, flood, food, nitrogen, North Carolina, nutrient, Ohio, pollination, soil, Soil Health Partnership, soy, soybean, soybeans, SUSTAIN, sustainable, sustainable agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, sustainable grain, United Suppliers MB Gro Program, water use, western water, yields | Comments are closed

Why the food movement is alive and well

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: May 11, 2015

Mark Bittman’s recent New York Times op-ed, “Let’s Make Food Issues Real,” is a grim assessment of the current state of the food movement – in fact, he questions whether a food movement exists at all.

Bittman states that the lack of major change to government food policies means the food movement is not winning. “I’ll believe there’s a food movement when Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush are forced to talk directly about food issues,” Bittman writes.

I’ll take that bet. With the drought in California threatening the nation’s produce and the other impacts climate change pose to our food supply, I think it’s likely that the next group of presidential candidates will discuss food issues on the campaign trail. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged agriculture, California Air Resources Board, Carbon Offsets, climate change, drought, farmers, farms, food movement, food production, Mark Bittman, nutrient efficiency, Partnerships, sustainable agriculture, USDA, western water | Read 2 Responses

No illusion here. Optical sensors can save farmers money.

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: February 25, 2015

Precision agriculture is on its way to becoming mainstream. First, farmers need tools and technologies that make this kind of smart farming dramatically easier.

Optical sensors are one of the most promising technologies available now. This technology is very exciting because it helps farmers save money on fertilizer – and improve crop yields.

Optical sensors are devices attached to a farmer’s fertilizer applicator. As the farmer travels across the field applying fertilizer, the technology reads how green or healthy the crop is, and it applies the right amount of fertilizer in accordance with each plant’s needs. Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged agriculture, corn, ecosystems, farmers, farms, fertilizer, food production, nutrient efficiency, precision agriculture, sustainable agriculture | Comments are closed

Three reasons fertilizer retailers should promote nitrogen efficiency

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: February 6, 2015

At first, the idea that fertilizer companies should help farmers become more efficient with fertilizer use is counterintuitive. After all, fertilizer retailers are in business to make money, so it makes sense that they would want to maximize sales of their core product.

Fortunately, using fertilizer more efficiently – even if this means less in some cases — can create more profit for retailers and growers. Fertilizer retailers have good reasons to incorporate fertilizer efficiency in their business strategies. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged agriculture, conservation, ecosystems, fertilizer, nitrogen, nutrient efficiency, precision agriculture, sustainable agriculture, United Suppliers | Comments are closed