Learn how the National Association of Wheat Growers is helping wheat farmers document and demonstrate their sustainability efforts.

Member Spotlight: The National Association of Wheat Growers

Learn how the National Association of Wheat Growers is helping wheat farmers document and demonstrate their sustainability efforts.

For the National Association of Wheat Growers, membership in Field to Market means helping wheat producers gain stronger voices to document and demonstrate sustainability and jointly pursue solutions to shared challenges facing agriculture. Through NAWG, America’s wheat producers combine their strengths, voices and ideas to help create a sustainable future for farmers, the industry and the environment.

“As we look into the future and the challenges we’re going to be facing, including producing wheat stocks in an affordable and efficient manner, not only for this country but the whole world—it becomes really evident that we need to be a part of the sustainable agriculture discussion,” said David Schemm, Vice President of NAWG. David is also a farmer in Sharon Springs, KS, where he grows wheat, corn, grain, sorghum and sunflowers.

“Participating in Field to Market has helped us provide a way to be able to discuss sustainability, participate with stakeholders across the value chain to define what sustainability means, and then to come back and measure our sustainability performance and show improvements in what we are doing,” explained David.

“As issues are raised in the food industry, Field to Market provides a platform to be able to discuss, address and deal with those issues,” shared David. “Instead of being reactionary, Field to Market has allowed us to be much more proactive in helping our members realize how vitally important the discussion with sustainability is and being able to demonstrate how the industry is addressing it.”

Demonstrating Improvements through a Common Measurement Framework

As the United States’ third largest commodity in acres grown in the U.S., wheat covers approximately 55 million acres of land. NAWG understands the significance of stewarding this land and is committed to continuously improving the wheat industry’s environmental outcomes over time.

“The Fieldprint® Calculator gives us the ability to analyze sustainability performance at the field level and share those results with the supply chain,” David asserted.

NAWG’s membership in Field to Market allows the organization to connect across the supply chain and tell their members’ sustainability story. As farmers adopt new technology and practices, NAWG can better demonstrate—through the common framework for sustainability measurement Field to Market offers—how farmers are making improvements and utilizing innovation while also sharing that data with consumers who are interested in where and how their food is grown.

“We think it’s vital we’re able to listen to what others in the food and agriculture value chain are saying and needing or wanting. Field to Market allows us to communicate our producers’ sustainability efforts, and as we continue to move forward and improve, we, as wheat producers, can show that we are doing better and communicate these results to our customers as a whole industry.”

David Schemm

Vice President,
The National Association of Wheat Growers

“As issues are raised in the food industry, Field to Market provides a platform to be able to discuss, address and deal with those issues. Instead of being reactionary, Field to Market has allowed us to be much more proactive in helping our members realize how vitally important the discussion with sustainability is and being able to demonstrate how the industry is addressing it.”

David Schemm
Vice President
The National Association of Wheat Growers

Sustaining the Future of Food

As an officer in NAWG’s leadership, David regularly attends meetings of state wheat grower organizations where he interacts with wheat producers and boards for each wheat producing state. In these meetings, David speaks about NAWG’s sustainability efforts and the role of the organization’s membership in Field to Market in advancing those efforts across all three pillars of sustainable agriculture—environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable.

“At a recent meeting with Wyoming wheat producers, I had a producer come up to me afterwards, and he said, ‘Wow, we really do need you there. I’m a fourth generation farmer, and I want to be able to pass this on to my sons. So many times, all I hear is this discussion of environmental sustainability, but when you start to talk about a regional level and that there’s also something pertaining to economic viability, it makes sense. I get what you’re trying to do.’”

David said he has many similar examples of a lightbulb moment for producers who begin to understand the current conversations around continuous improvement and the opportunities to not only deliver positive benefits for the environment, but to help drive improvements for a producer’s bottom line.

“One of the key things is being able to come together so that we have a coordinated food production system with members from field to fork who can show how the food on people’s plates has been produced in a way that can continue to be produced in the future,” said David. “Truly, isn’t that the definition of sustainability? That’s the strength that Field to Market brings through convening stakeholders across the entire value chain to work together in building confidence in the complete system by demonstrating continuous improvement.”

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