Agricultural News
Group Aims to Define Sustainability for Agriculture
Thu, 30 Oct 2014 19:32:14 CDT
The word "sustainability" is everywhere these days. One group has set out to define sustainability within agriculture. For the past six years Field to Market has been working with row crops to begin to define sustainable outcomes. President Rod Snyder spoke this week at the Texas Cattle Feeders Association Annual meeting in Oklahoma City. Radio Oklahoma Network's Leslie Smith interview Snyder about the organization. Click on the LISTEN BAR below to listen to the full interview.
As the beef segment starts to look at sustainability, one component of that is the feed. Snyder said Field to Market has done a lot work the past five to six years working on the sustainability of feed grain. He said the beef industry will not need to recreate the wheel as a lot of consensus has already been achieved with major agricultural buyers like Wal-Mart and McDonalds. In 2014 several animal ag groups have begun to move forward to a develop a multi-stakeholder effort in developing their own sustainability program.
To-date the nonprofit organization Field to Market has gained wide ranging support with 60 members from grower organizations to agribusiness, food, fiber, restaurants, retail companies, conservation groups and universities. Snyder said at this point there is no financial incentive to be apart of the effort for producers. Participants are gaining new angle on their production practices in receiving comparisons and bench marks with state, regional and national averages.
"Down the road it probably ultimately is about how we ensure long term market access to many of these major food brands that want to communicate to the consumers in this way," Snyder said. "You look at a lot of these companies that are setting sustainability goals, they really are needing to track this farm level information in order to say whether or not they are meeting their goals they have stated to their consumers."
The following organizations are current members of Field to Market.
•Agrium
•American Crystal Sugar Company
•American Farm Bureau Federation
•American Soybean Association
•Archer Daniels Midland
•BASF
•Bayer CropScience
•Biotechnology Industry Organization
•Bunge
•Cargill
•CHS Inc.
•Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases
•Conservation Technology Information Center
•Cotton Incorporated
•CropLife America
•CropLife International
•Dow AgroSciences
•Ducks Unlimited
•DuPont Pioneer
•Environmental Defense Fund
•FleishmanHillard
•General Mills
•Indiana Soybean Alliance
•Innovation Center for US Dairy
•International Plant Nutrition Institute
•John Deere
•Kellogg Company
•Land O'Lakes
•McDonald's Corporation
•Monsanto Company
•National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance
•National Association of Conservation Districts
•National Association of Wheat Growers
•National Corn Growers Association
•National Cotton Council of America
•National Potato Council
•Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
•North Carolina State University
•Penton Media
•Procter & Gamble
•Syngenta Corporation
•Tate & Lyle
•The Coca-Cola Company
•The Conservation Fund
•The Fertilizer Institute
•The Freshwater Trust
•The Mosaic Company
•The Nature Conservancy
•Thompson & Coburn
•Unilever
•United Soybean Board
•University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
•University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
•U.S. Soybean Export Council
•USA Rice Federation
•Walmart
•World Wildlife Fund - US
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