![\"Tractor](\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2016\/10\/CombineInCornField_2057080_Shutterstock.com_RF-300x199.jpg\")
Journalist Michael Pollan deserves credit for elevating the national conversation about food. Over the course of 25 years, his articles and books have thoughtfully contemplated the troubling side effects of the American diet and the way our food is produced.<\/p>\n
But his latest piece in the\u00a0New York Times Magazine<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>reads like a script for a black and white Western, with food companies, agribusiness and commodity producers cast in the role of Bad Guy and local organic farmers and vegans cast as the Men in White Hats.<\/p>\n In Pollan\u2019s script, the bad guys are responsible for everything from America\u2019s weight problem and rising health care costs to widespread environmental degradation and monocultures that threaten national security. If only the law would get on the good guys\u2019 side, he muses.<\/p>\n Food production is actually changing<\/strong><\/p>\n All industries have issues that continually need to be addressed, and the food industry is no exception.<\/p>\n Agriculture consumes a lot of land and water and emits greenhouse gas emissions that must be curbed. And, yes, our diets have contributed to America\u2019s obesity epidemic.<\/p>\n Except, our food system is changing, more than Pollan acknowledges.<\/p>\n The uptick in consumer demand for local, organic products is promising. So, too, are the\u00a0contributions<\/a>\u00a0that Pollan\u2019s so-called villains \u2013 the companies, agribusinesses and commodity farmers who produce what\u2019s on our plate \u2013 are making to the environment. They deserve recognition.<\/p>\n [Tweet “What @michaelpollan gets wrong about Big Ag, via @davidfesta and @GrowingReturns:https:\/\/edf.org\/hAg”]<\/p>\n Grocer giant transforming supply chain<\/strong><\/p>\n Fertilizer pollution<\/a>\u00a0has been a nagging problem for decades.<\/p>\n Scientists estimate that only 40 percent of fertilizer applied in a given season is\u00a0absorbed by crops that year. While some fertilizer stays in the soil, the rest is lost to the air in the form of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas\u00a0\u2013\u00a0or it washes into rivers and streams, creating dead zones that contaminate drinking water supplies and kill fish.<\/p>\n Today, more than 15 food companies are implementing programs to source fertilizer-efficient ingredients, including big brands<\/a> such as General Mills, Smithfield Foods,\u00a0Kellogg\u2019s and Campbell Soup. Look for more producers to come on board in coming months.<\/p>\n 2 million acres already enrolled, more coming<\/strong><\/p>\n Change will never occur if we stay entrenched in political ideologies.<\/p>\n<\/div>Their commitments have inspired agricultural retailers \u2013 the people who sell fertilizer and other agricultural products to farmers. They\u2019re now developing\u00a0programs<\/a>\u00a0that help growers maximize fertilizer efficiency and improve soil health, which in turn boosts yields and increases a farm\u2019s resilience to climate change.<\/p>\n One of those programs, SUSTAIN, now part of Land O’ Lakes, committed to enrolling 10 million acres of farmland in sustainable practices by the end of this decade.<\/p>\n It leaves us a long way from making sustainability the business norm across the nation\u2019s 250 million acres of corn, wheat and soybeans; but 10 million is a lot of farmland.<\/p>\n And change is coming rapidly. In just two years, SUSTAIN has reached farmers on 2 million acres. Think about the impact we could make if even more ag retailers and advisors got into the game.<\/p>\n Farmers as good guys<\/strong><\/p>\n To restore and protect his soil, Knopf forgoes tilling and plants cover crops. Many of his farmer neighbors do the same. So do hundreds of the heartland farmers Environmental Defense Fund works with to make sustainable practices the norm.<\/p>\n Those who paint large-scale farmers, agribusiness and food companies as the monolithic villain ignore the improvements that are being made today on the ground, in corporate offices and in food company kitchens. And they do little to further the dialog about how we\u2019re going to meet growing demands for food in a changing climate.<\/p>\n Change won\u2019t occur overnight. But it will never occur if we stay entrenched in political ideologies.<\/p>\n By working together, we can scale up\u00a0sustainable practices<\/a> much more rapidly. Given future population projections, we have no time to lose.<\/p>\n This piece originally\u00a0appeared on Huffington Post<\/a>\u00a0and is reprinted with permission.\u00a0<\/em>You may also enjoy:<\/em><\/p>\n Why Kansas farmer Justin Knopf strives to emulate the native prairie >><\/a><\/p>\n A coalition of uncommon bedfellows is bringing sustainable agriculture to scale >><\/a><\/p>\n![\"Large](\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2016\/04\/10148974485_c9b274f578_k-1-300x169.jpg\")
When North America\u2019s largest grocer commits to reducing its greenhouse gas footprint, it sends ripples through the agricultural supply chain. That\u2019s what happened when Walmart\u00a0set an ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goal and asked its suppliers to use fertilizer-efficient grains in their products.<\/p>\n![\"Farmer](\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2016\/09\/Justin-Knopf-1-199x300.jpg\")
As my colleague Miriam Horn notes in her new book, Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman<\/a><\/em>, some of the biggest conservation heroes\u00a0in America are so-called industrial-scale farmers<\/a> such as Justin Knopf, who grows wheat and soybeans on thousands of acres across the Kansas prairie.<\/p>\n