Press Releases

Field to Market to Track Sustainability Progress

July 05, 2010

Scientists, farmers and Field to Market members are working to develop efficient ways to track the progress being made with sustainability initiatives.

Tackling sustainable agriculture – the USA approach.

Key scientific, farm and conservation organizations in the USA are working together to track the American farm sector’s move towards an increasingly desired sustainable footing.

The imperative in forming the ‘Field to Market, Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture’, is that agricultural systems face a growing challenge to meet the accelerating demand for food, fiber, feed and fuel outputs while minimizing the environmental footprint of production.

Against this background, Keystone Alliance member, USA-based Dr. David Gustafson, says it’s important to establish a baseline to track progress.
“We’re developing a series of metrics for quantifying the sustainability of our agricultural systems.

“This data will be used to help understand the status of USA agricultural systems in various regions, develop indicators of the environmental and societal impacts of agriculture and identify how science can be applied to provide solutions.

“Clearly, there will be a role for new farming technologies and systems to help preserve and improve water quality, biodiversity, and economic sustainability of farm communities,” he says.

USA ‘Field to Market – Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture’ member visits Australia.

Visiting Australia soon to attend key conferences this week, Dr. Gustafson will be presenting information that summarizes the Alliance’s efforts, challenges and outcomes to date as well as his research on climate change and bio-fuels. He is available for interview.

Dr. Gustafson says climate change and bio-fuels are key additional issues influencing agriculture.

Climate change: “Convincing data show that temperatures are increasing, and that changing precipitation patterns are affecting agricultural outputs.

“Clearly, higher-yielding varieties present a larger and more tempting target to all pests, and the pests themselves will extend their ranges poleward and into other new areas due to reduced winter kill and longer growing seasons.

“While good progress on enhancing crop protection technology is being made, increased investment into new technologies and adoption of new agricultural practices are essential.

Bio-fuels: “Global agriculture must undergo a paradigm shift from fossil fuels to more sustainable and environmentally-friendly energy sources.

“To augment current bio-energy crops (corn, soybean, sugarcane) researchers are evaluating newer crops (Miscanthus, Switchgrass) planted as buffers around all edges of conventional row crop fields, with multiple environmental benefits: reduced runoff, greenhouse gas sequestration and a low-input source of bio-fuels. This new approach will require some modification of farm practices and government programs to facilitate implementation,” he says.

Background.

Field to Market, the Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, includes representatives from throughout the food and fiber chain, including grower organizations, agribusinesses, food companies and conservation organizations.

The primary objectives of Field to Market are:

  • To identify criteria for sustainable agriculture that are open to the full range of agricultural technology choices; and
  • To support the implementation of production systems that lead to broad performance improvements against these criteria.

The Alliance believes that growing food demand, grower needs and desirable land use patterns will require an intensification of agriculture:

  • Nearly all estimates of future demand for agricultural goods suggest a need to double agricultural production by 2050, if not before, in order to maintain adequate supplies for a growing world population that will use its expanding income to diversify diets with more meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables
  • Agriculture is already the predominant use of all habitable land; however, grain-producing land per capita in 2030 is projected to be just 0.08 hectares (0.2 acres), or just one-third of what was available in 1950

For more information and a Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture membership list, visit: http://www.keystone.org/spp/environment/sustainability/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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