Spotlight Series
Strengthening Trust with Consumers and the Supply Chain
Mark Jackson, a fifth generation farmer, has been farming in the Southeastern part of Iowa for forty-two years. In fact, he’s still farming the same land his great-great-grandfather homesteaded in 1890. Today, working with his brother, son and wife to grow corn and soybeans and raise livestock, Mark uses technology and tools, including the Fieldprint® Calculator, to drive continuous improvement.
“The computer is as important to my farming operation today as the harness was for my grandfather’s horses,” said Mark. “I’ve increased my production three to four times that of my grandfather, while reducing my fertilizer, workload and other inputs by half on the very same land.”
Telling this sustainability story, of how he is able to farm more with less, is important in strengthening consumer trust in our food system, shares Mark.
“Somewhere along the line, trust was lost between the consumer and the farmer. As we move forward in our continuous improvement efforts, it’s important to have that documentation scientifically to help explain what we do,” he said. “And the Fieldprint Calculator is one of those tools that we can use to help show—through continuous improvement, from a platform that’s based in science–how we move forward on our journey of continuous improvement.”
Mark Jackson
5th Generation Farmer
Rose Hill, Iowa
Mark uses the tool to estimate his field-scale performance on specific sustainability indicators and then compare his individual results against benchmarks at the state and national level. “The Fieldprint Calculator allows you to compare yourself and your practices with someone else, anonymously, online. It brings up your farm, and your specific fields, right to the certain location, and you can dial up whatever practices you want to use,” he said. “And because of that, you’re able to integrate the baseline data which allows us to move forward on that continuous improvement element and show the consumer that we’re able to grow more with less.”
This benchmarking and documentation is also helpful in demonstrating sustainability performance to the supply chain, including downstream brands and retailers that are looking to farmers to measure their environmental impacts and document and demonstrate their performance over time.
© Joseph L. Murphy, Iowa Soybean Association
“The Fieldprint Calculator is a translation tool. Sometimes we find ourselves speaking in different languages even though we mean the same thing,” he said. “We can use the Fieldprint Calculator to help show the consumer what it is that we’ve done to make our land, water and air better than it was when I started farming. The Calculator provides the documentation that allows that translation of languages from the agricultural community to the consumer and all the people in that value chain in between.”
“We can use the Fieldprint® Calculator to help show the consumer what it is that we’ve done to make our land, water and air better than it was when I started farming.”
Mark Jackson
5th Generation Farmer
Rose Hill, Iowa
