Press Releases

Field to Market Launches Fieldprint Platform 4.0 with Enhanced Science to Assess Nutrient Loss Pathways and Estimate Soil Carbon Sequestration

July 07, 2021

Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture today introduced Fieldprint® Platform 4.0, the next generation of the industry’s most widely recognized sustainability assessment tool for commodity crop production in the United States. The Fieldprint Platform’s new features and functionality provide farmers and the value chain with improved science to quantify the impact of in-field management to improve water quality and sequester soil carbon alongside an enhanced user experience.

Grounded in science and focused on outcomes, the cornerstone of Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator lies in the pre-competitive metrics embedded in the sustainability analytics engine offered by the Fieldprint Platform. A pioneering assessment framework empowering brands, retailers, suppliers and farmers at every stage in their sustainability journey, the Fieldprint Platform measures the environmental impacts of commodity crop production against eight sustainability metrics white identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.

Farmers can assess environmental performance of management practices through the Fieldprint Platform’s online calculator or through associated farm-management software that integrates the Platform’s pre-competitive metrics and algorithms. Farmers can also opt-in to participate in member-led Continuous Improvement Projects, anonymously sharing their data to evaluate performance against peers, while supporting downstream companies in characterizing and advancing the sustainability of their supply chains.

New Features Available in Fieldprint Platform 4.0:

  • Enhanced Water Quality Analysis: Following a review by Field to Market’s member-led Metrics Committee, a public comment period, and approval by Field to Market’s Board of Directors, Field to Market is adopting the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Stewardship Tool for Environmental Performance (STEP) as an enhanced water quality metric. The new metric enables farmers and the value chain to identify potential for applied nitrogen and phosphorus to be lost through runoff or leaching. Users can then evaluate the effectiveness of NRCS conservation practices to mitigate the risk of nutrient losses to improve water quality outcomes.
  • Quantitative Soil Carbon Tool: With the integration of USDA-NRCS COMET-Planner, the Fieldprint Platform now offers a quantitative approach to estimating soil carbon sequestration potential of specific practices, offering farmers and the value chain the opportunity to go beyond the directional assessment offered by the existing Soil Conditioning Index. COMET-Planner offers farmers a resource to quickly and easily estimate the potential for soil carbon change in response to a recent or planned management change, while also enabling Continuous Improvement Projects the ability to assess the impact of incentivizing greater adoption of conservation practices like cover crops and conservation tillage.
  • Enhanced Support Features: Fieldprint Platform 4.0 delivers an improved user experience for both farmers and administrators of Continuous Improvement Projects, offering a new support portal with a user guide to support farmers in completing common tasks and knowledge base with responses to frequently asked questions.

As Field to Market members operationalize commitments to scale climate smart and regenerative agriculture, the new science embedded in Fieldprint Platform 4.0 will enable the more than 80 member-led projects registered in the Continuous Improvement Accelerator to advance climate and sustainability efforts within their supply chains.

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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