{"id":6254,"date":"2016-05-17T11:15:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T15:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=6254"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:27:48","slug":"from-western-india-to-iowa-why-farming-is-at-the-heart-of-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2016\/05\/17\/from-western-india-to-iowa-why-farming-is-at-the-heart-of-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"From Southwestern India to Iowa: Why farming is at the heart of sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hiking<\/a>
Studying in the Western Ghats region of India.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was younger, I fantasized about becoming a Jane Goodall for the millennial generation. I imagined living in the wilderness to study animals\u2019 behavior and help conserve land. During college, I briefly lived out my dream when I spent a summer in the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats region of India, living and working on a private wildlife sanctuary where I studied the local flora.<\/p>\n

The sanctuary was an island of preserved land, surrounded by vast farms that dominated the region\u2019s landscape. While there, I had an epiphany \u2013 one that brought me back to my own family\u2019s agricultural history on a farm in Iowa.<\/p>\n

I realized that if we don\u2019t work with farmers to conserve wild places, we will never be able to create truly sustainable environments for animals and humans. If I really wanted to make an impact on the Ghats region and its biodiversity, I\u2019d need to move beyond a private sanctuary and back toward my family\u2019s farming roots.<\/p>\n

India showed me first-hand the need to partner with farmers. Spending summers on my family\u2019s farm in Iowa and steering the tractor with my grandfather taught me to appreciate the integral role farmers play in maintaining balance in the ecosystem \u2013 and that farming is incredibly hard work. Both of these experiences still influence my agricultural career, which is focused on deploying the SUSTAIN\u2122 platform<\/a><\/u>, developed by United Suppliers, Inc. in coordination with EDF, to assist growers in improving fertilizer efficiency and soil health.<\/p>\n

SUSTAINing and collaborating<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Women<\/a>
My time in India brought me back to my agricultural roots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If there\u2019s one word that best describes my work in agricultural sustainability, it\u2019s \u201cpartnership.\u201d Through ag retailers who interact directly with grower customers, SUSTAIN farmers can use a toolkit containing practices, products and local advice that help them get more nitrogen into their crops and reduce fertilizer losses to the air and water.<\/p>\n

My role frequently requires that I collaborate and find common ground with growers, the ag retail sector and food companies. On the surface, these are uncommon bedfellows. Yet I\u2019ve found among them a common desire to feed the planet as sustainably as possible and minimize environmental impacts.<\/p>\n

Growers trust their ag retailers to provide advice on crop management. And food companies like Smithfield Foods, Campbell\u2019s and Kellogg\u2019s are interested in the SUSTAIN model, too \u2013 they\u2019re using the platform to help meet corporate sustainability goals.<\/p>\n

SUSTAIN is working<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SUSTAIN<\/a>On a recent trip to Iowa, a grower whose land happens to be near my grandmother\u2019s farm told me about his experience with Adapt-N, a web-based component in the SUSTAIN toolkit that models weather changes, monitors nitrogen loss and estimates ideal fertilizer amounts. By using the software on a portion of his fields, he increased his yields by more than 30 bushels per acre, an incredible improvement. He is now using the SUSTAIN platform across the full breadth of his farm.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to look at nitrogen pollution in waterways like the Gulf of Mexico and point a finger at farmers. But personally, I\u2019ve been inspired by growers\u2019 stewardship ethic and desire to pass on their land to future generations, despite the complex challenges they face. And I\u2019m increasingly inspired by hearing success stories like this one.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m eager to hear more of these stories as the SUSTAIN platform continues its rapid expansion.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/em><\/p>\n

How an ag retail program is scaling up sustainable practices >><\/a><\/p>\n

How this ag retailer is helping farmers scale the sustainability mountain >><\/a><\/p>\n

When landowners invest in sustainability, everyone wins >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was younger, I fantasized about becoming a Jane Goodall for the millennial generation. I imagined living in the wilderness to study animals\u2019 behavior and help conserve land. During college, I briefly lived out my dream when I spent a summer in the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats region of India, living and working on a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120554],"tags":[84842,74299,34749,84839,722,383,42756,71840,4241,40288,74347,58953,60123,84752,71660,413,71659,84841],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-ag-retailer","tag-campbells","tag-corporate-social-responsibility","tag-crop-management","tag-csr","tag-environmental-defense-fund","tag-farmers","tag-food-companies","tag-india","tag-iowa","tag-kelloggs","tag-nitrogen","tag-smithfield-foods","tag-stewardship","tag-sustain","tag-sustainability","tag-united-suppliers","tag-western-ghats"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3619"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15538,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6254\/revisions\/15538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6254"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}