Press Releases

Field to Market Extends Membership up through the Supply Chain

September 14, 2012

KEYSTONE, CO – Field to Market, the Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, announced today that it has expanded its already diverse membership to include representation from the retail sector. Walmart has joined the alliance of nearly fifty organizations including producer organizations, agribusinesses, food companies, conservation organizations and other not-for-profit organizations, universities, and agency partners.

The new membership extends Field to Market’s opportunity to discuss sustainability from inside the farm gate to the retailer counter.

“Walmart is proud to be the first retailer to join Field to Market. As the world’s population grows to 9 billion people, the entire supply chain – from growers to processors to food companies – must develop deep collaboration and partnership to rise to the challenge of feeding the future,” said Andrea Thomas, senior vice president of Walmart Sustainability. “We are committed to advocating with Field to Market for their outcomes-based approaches to continuously improve profitability and sustainability throughout the food chain.”

The alliance provides a table for the food and fiber chain and other partners to come together, but also offers tools for use in the field and a national and local level to better understand sustainability trends. The alliance recently released a report on the use of environmental and socioeconomic indicators for measuring national-scale outcomes of on-farm agricultural production in the United States.

Field to Market’s Fieldprint Calculator is a free, online tool allowing growers to confidentially enter specific information about their on-farm decisions and outcomes and then compare their decisions to local, state or national averages to identify opportunities for improvement. Through the continuous growth of Field to Market’s members, the alliance is able to provide these tools and reports free to the agricultural community and other levels of the supply chain.

“Our increasingly broad and diverse membership – which now includes the retail sector – provides a unique opportunity to work from field to market to build solutions for measuring and promoting continuous improvement for agriculture. While our work and focus remains in our growers’ fields, our contribution is to the entire food supply chain and we welcome the input and participation of all,” explained Fred Luckey, chairman of Field to Market.

ABOUT FIELD TO MARKET

Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture® brings together a diverse group of grower organizations; agribusinesses; food, feed, beverage, restaurant, and retail companies; conservation groups; universities and public sector partners to focus on defining, measuring, and advancing the sustainability of food, feed, fiber, and fuel production. Field to Market comprises around 200 members representing all facets of the U.S. agricultural supply chain, with members employing more than 5 million people and representing combined revenues totaling over $1.5 trillion. 

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