Growing Returns

3 reasons animal agriculture should be leading the way on supply chain sustainability

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: February 9, 2018

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted that Americans will eat a record-breaking amount of meat in 2018 [PDF] – 223 pounds per person of chicken, pork and beef. That’s why I went to Atlanta last week to speak to environmental managers for the nation’s largest meat companies at a conference held by the North American Meat Institute.

My message for those I met? Animal agriculture should be leading the way in addressing the full impacts of their supply chains, from feed grain production all the way to the consumer.

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged animal agriculture, meat production, Partnerships, Smithfield Foods, supply chain sustainability, sustainable agriculture, Tyson Foods | Read 1 Response

How the Army prepared me for a conservation career in agriculture

By Jamie Powers / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: January 16, 2018

I’ve always been mindful of the environment, but it never struck me that conservation was something you could focus on professionally. It was just something that you cared about.

That’s why my career until now has included a range of other pursuits – playing music professionally and teaching percussion to public school students, collecting and analyzing intelligence in the U.S. Army, and conducting social network analysis for the Department of Defense.

When U.S. military involvement (and thus my own involvement) in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began to diminish, I took stock of what was important to me and what I wanted to spend the rest of my career doing. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged agricultural retailers, Agricultural Retailers Association, agronomy, American Society of Agronomy, Certified Crop Advisers, fertilizer, Field to Market, military, Partnerships, SPARC, sustainable agriculture, veteran | Comments are closed

How John Deere and Cornell can ensure big data benefits farmers and the environment

By Robert Parkhurst / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: October 13, 2017

5 gigabytes of data is the equivalent of up to 1.6 million emails. (Photo credit: Flickr user Judd McCullum)

Modern farm equipment comes more outfitted than a fully loaded car. These precision farming machines are furnished with multiple sensors that collect data during planting, nutrient application and harvest. A typical farmer now has 5 gigabytes of data, five seasons’ worth, in storage.

This trove of data promises to revolutionize farming, giving farmers unparalleled insights for business and stewardship decisions. Unfortunately, the data collected tends to stay on equipment hard drives, greatly reducing its usefulness to farmers.

A new partnership between John Deere and Cornell University promises to change that. Ag-Analytics, a Cornell data platform, syncs with John Deere’s Operation Center and makes it easier than ever for farmers to access and analyze farm data. Cornell is the first university to integrate with John Deere, and the analytical tools now available to farmers include a crop insurance estimator and yield and risk management forecasts. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged big data, Cornell University, data analysis, data management, John Deere, Partnerships, precision agriculture, sustainable agriculture | Comments are closed

Improving water quality is a shared responsibility

By Suzy Friedman / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: September 19, 2017

Iowa farmer Denny Friest surveys his fields from his combine.

Iowa farmer Denny Friest (Photo credit: John Rae)

I spent the summer meeting with farmers, commodity groups and food companies in the Midwest to discuss collaborative conservation approaches. Whether we were in Missouri, Iowa or Minnesota, water quality was top of mind.

Agriculture has a large impact on water quality – the sector is the source of 70 percent of the nutrients that flow down the Mississippi River and cause dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.

Farmers have made big strides on implementing and scaling conservation measures to improve water quality and agriculture’s overall environmental footprint. Unsung heroes like Tim Richter, Kristin Duncanson and Denny Friest are constantly fine-tuning nutrient and soil management with new efficiency tools, finding better ways to implement cover crops or reduce tillage, installing wetlands and buffers, and introducing new crops into their rotations. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged campbell soup company, collaborative conservation, Denny Friest, farm bill, fertilizer, Kristin Duncanson, Kristin Weeks Duncanson, Land O'Lakes, midwest row crop collaborative, nutrient management, nutrient use, Partnerships, Smithfield Foods, SUSTAIN, sustainable agriculture, Tim Richter, USDA, water quality | Read 1 Response

How an innovative corn supply chain model can empower companies to help farmers

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: September 6, 2017

Grain elevator. Credit: Flickr user Wilson Hui

A new study out this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that trying to make supply chains more sustainable is not for the faint of heart, especially when it comes to food – and corn in particular.

Companies are keenly aware that consumers care about where their ingredients come from and how they were grown, and that improving efficiencies along the supply chain can be good for business. But the raw ingredients at the end of those chains are typically produced by a vast network of farmers who bring their corn to regional grain elevators and then sell their crops to grain traders. This is just the start of a lengthy and complicated process that can be challenging for food companies to disentangle and understand, let alone influence to become more sustainable.

That’s why the new study, which focuses on a corn supply chain model developed by the University of Minnesota’s Northstar Initiative for Sustainable Enterprise (NiSE), can be an important tool for empowering food companies with information that can help them tackle the tough job of supply chain sustainability. Read More »

Also posted in Climate Resilience / Tagged agriculture, conservation, ecosystems, environmental defense fund, farmers, farms, fertilizer, food production, PNAS, supply chain, sustainable agriculture, University of Minnesota, water quality | Comments are closed

Why we need a new era of collaborative conservation

By Josette Lewis / Bio / Published: August 11, 2017

This year’s Gulf of Mexico dead zone is the largest ever recorded, affecting 8,776 square miles – similar in size to the state of New Jersey.

Agriculture – from fertilizers and livestock production – is a major source of the nutrients that cause these harmful algal blooms in our lakes and coastal areas. Fertilizers are required to grow food, but we know that making farming practices more efficient and creating natural buffers and filters around farms can reduce runoff.

Farming is already risky business, with unpredictable weather, tough global competition and fluctuating commodity prices.

Implementing conservation practices at scale without hurting growers’ productivity requires understanding the challenges of different sectors and bringing together their expertise and investment. It’s a collaborative effort, and we must recognize that we are all working around a common goal: a more sustainable food system.

This month, Environmental Defense Fund is launching a series of public events – in Bozeman, St. Louis, and Des Moines – to highlight, advance, and celebrate collaborations among private landowners, food and agriculture companies, policy makers, and the public.

Also posted in Wildlife Protection / Tagged agriculture, algae bloom, collaboration, conservation, dead zone, ecosystems, environmental defense fund, farm bill, farmers, food production, food security, natural resources, NCGA, NRCS, Partnerships, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, USDA, Walmart | Comments are closed

3 ways Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods could affect agriculture and the environment

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: June 22, 2017

Photo credit: USDA

The vast majority of the media stories surrounding Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods have focused on how the deal could affect the cost of food, home delivery services, competition in the retail space and our overall shopping experiences.

While it’s still too early to predict what exactly Amazon will do with hundreds of new brick and mortar grocery stores, here are three possible implications for farmers and the land they rely on to grow our food.

1. Demand for organic could skyrocket

As of last month, organic products represented more than 5 percent of all grocery sales in the US – and organics have been one of the strongest areas of growth for many retailers and grocery stores.

Now, with Whole Foods under the Amazon umbrella, that demand could increase exponentially. POLITICO noted that if this happens, “domestic organic acreage isn’t positioned to handle such an expansion.” Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged agricultural sustainability, consumers, corporate social responsibility, cover crops, farmers, food, food waste, organic, Partnerships, precision agriculture, produce, supply chain sustainability, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, transparency, whole foods | Read 2 Responses

How food companies can turn the pollinator emergency into a big opportunity

By David Wolfe / Bio / Published: June 20, 2017

The rusty patched bumblebee was listed as an endangered species in early 2017. [Photo credit]

Bees, beetles and butterflies are in big trouble.

Pollinators all over the world are experiencing dramatic declines in populations, with about 40 percent of all invertebrate pollinator species facing a very real threat of extinction. Just last October, several species of bees were added to the U.S. Endangered Species List for the first time. Monarch butterfly populations also face the potential threat of a future listing, with populations down by more than 90 percent in recent decades.

These stats are concerning because pollinator health is a strong indicator of an ecosystem’s overall health. Pollinator decline directly correlates with habitat loss, decreased plant diversity, and increased disease in the ecosystem.

This problem cannot be solved by any one sector. Restoration of pollinator habitats will require significant investment and collaboration between both public and private sectors – especially businesses with bottom lines directly tied to pollinator success. Read More »

Also posted in Habitat Exchange, Wildlife Protection / Tagged cheerios, ecosystems, monarch butterfly, national pollinator week. environmental defense fund, pollinators, rusty patched bumblebee, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whole foods, Xerces Society | Read 2 Responses

A call to help us strengthen the economic case for sustainability practices

By Suzy Friedman / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: May 30, 2017

Visiting my friend and Iowa corn farmer, Tim Richter.

Before installing a new heating system for your home, you’d want to conduct an analysis to make sure it’s worth the money, right? The same logic applies to farming – before a producer considers implementing conservation practices or new technologies, he or she will need to know how those practices will affect an operation’s bottom line.

Despite some good anecdotal information and several isolated field trial studies, the reality is we don’t have nearly enough information on the economic impacts – good or bad – of individual conservation practices. That means we cannot yet make an ironclad business case that will persuade the majority of farmers to implement conservation practices.

There are several key reasons for the dearth of information, and that’s partly my fault.

I’m hoping you can look past this and consider my call to work together to collect the necessary data to strengthen the case. Our food, livelihoods and landscapes depend on it. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged cover crops, data collection, economics, fertilizer, Illinois, Illinois Corn Growers Association, iowa, National Corn Growers Association, nutrient efficiency, On-Farm Network, Partnerships, precision agriculture, Precision Conservation Management, profitability, Soil Health Partnership, sustainable agriculture, water quality | Comments are closed

Farmers’ voices are essential to figuring out sustainability. Let’s listen up.

By Suzy Friedman / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: January 6, 2017

The corn and soybean fields that stretch for miles across the Midwest are quiet this time of year, mostly frozen surfaces waiting for the spring planting season.

Although many farmers are not in the field dawn to dusk during the winter, they are still plenty busy. Between planning for the next season, taking care of animals and attending countless meetings, farmers are seldom idle even if their crop fields are.

But lucky for us, winter does afford more time to talk.

One friend from Iowa who works hard to use fertilizer efficiently to avoid runoff and optimize plant uptake of nutrients said he worries that food companies don’t always recognize the sustainability efforts of mainstream farmers. Too often, he said, it seems food companies look for simple labels like organic.

A soybean grower I know from Ohio who has invested a lot of time learning farming practices that will help restore nearby Lake Erie told me it is a constant struggle to balance making a living with repairing decades of agricultural nutrient runoff that have imperiled the health of the lake. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Tagged ag retailers, ag tech, corn, crop advisors, data, farm bill, fertilizer, Field to Market, Land O'Lakes, local, organic, Partnerships, Smithfield, Smithfield Foods, soybeans, SUSTAIN, sustainable agriculture, technology, Walmart, water quality, wheat | Read 3 Responses