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.

Field to Market, The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, is a diverse initiative that joins producers, agribusinesses, food companies, conservation organizations and university and agency partners seeking to create sustainable outcomes for agriculture. Field to Market is facilitated by The Keystone Center, an independent, non-profit organization specializing in collaborative decision-making processes for environment, energy, and health policy issues. For more information, visit www.fieldtomarket.org.

For more information, contact:
Courtney Moscovic
214-665-1364 (office)
courtney.moscovic@fleishman.com

WASHINGTON, DC – A new report released by Field to Market, the Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, demonstrates how six commodity crops (corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, rice and potatoes) are being produced more efficiently in the US than they were thirty years ago, accompanied by important improvements in farm safety and economic sustainability for producers. At the same time, increased production to meet growing demand has also resulted in greater overall resource use by many crops.

Stewart Ramsey, principal and senior economist at IHS Global Insight, which conducted the analyses for the report, notes, “Sustainability for agriculture is a complex, multidimensional topic; the intent of this report is to bring together best available data and science to inform the conversation and provide a picture of U.S. agriculture’s sustainability changes over the past three decades.” Developed by a diverse group of stakeholders, the report analyzes national-scale trends in environmental and socioeconomic progress over time. The analyses rely on publicly available data to estimate performance on eleven agricultural sustainability indicators ranging from soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions to labor hours and debt-to-asset ratios. The trends provide broad context, enable informed discussions of priorities for more localized efforts, and create a baseline against which to monitor future change.

Fred Luckey, chairman of Field to Market, describes the report as “an innovative, scientific, and collaborative way to define and measure outcomes for sustainable agriculture. The report reflects significant progress as well as continued opportunities for improvement in the face of real sustainability challenges.”

“Farmers have a great story to tell about improving conservation on their lands. We still have a lot of work ahead to meet the dual needs of production and sustainability. The way to get there is through partnerships like Field to Market and using better science and better tools to make documentable improvements in the footprint of commodity production,” explained Suzy Friedman, deputy director, working lands at Environmental Defense Fund.

The report finds that, over the study period, all six crops demonstrated progress in improving resource use/impact per unit of production on all five environmental indicators (land use, soil erosion, irrigation water use, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions); for example, soil erosion per unit of production has improved by 47 to 67 percent, and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions per unit of production have decreased between 15 percent and more than 42 percent for all crops. Improvements in efficiency were driven, at least in part, by improvements in yield for all crops, ranging from 25 percent to 64 percent. Due in part to overall increases in production for five of the six crops (excluding wheat) and increases in total land use for four of the six crops (excluding potatoes and wheat), total resource use/impact increased for many crops on many indicators. Per acre resource use/impact was more variable across crops.

“Producer involvement is key in developing sustainable agriculture metrics that resonate with all levels of the supply chain. This report takes a look at the sustainability story growers have to tell from inside the farm gate, where all food production starts,” explained Bob Young, Chief Economist & Director, Budget and Economic Analysis, American Farm Bureau Federation.

For socioeconomic indicators, the indicators for debt to asset ratio, fatalities, and non-fatality injury decreased (improved) over their respective time periods and farm classification. Returns over variable costs have been inconsistent over the indicator’s respective time period, but have been increasing for all crops, excluding cotton, since approximately 2002, and for cotton since 2009. Labor hours have decreased for all crops per unit of production and, excluding wheat, per planted acre. Overall, the agricultural sector’s contribution to national GDP has increased over the explored time period in absolute terms but decreased as a share of total.

“Agriculture plays an important role in helping America achieve meaningful environmental and sustainability gains,” said Steve Peterson, sourcing director, General Mills. “With the growing demand for increased food production, there is no better option than to do so safely – sustaining our planet’s land, water and natural resources for future generations. We have a long history of working closely with farmers to promote sustainable agriculture. The latest trends report demonstrates progress that aids our sustainability efforts throughout the supply chain.”

This report is an update to Field to Market’s first report that was released in 2009 and now includes updated data and methods as well as additional crops and new socioeconomic indicators. Field to Market defines sustainable agriculture as meeting the needs of the present while improving the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, including through increasing productivity and improving the environment, human health and social and economic well-being of agricultural communities. For more information about Field to Market, or to read the full report, please visit www.fieldtomarket.org.

Field to Market, The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, is a diverse initiative that joins producers, agribusinesses, food companies, conservation organizations and university and agency partners seeking to create sustainable outcomes for agriculture. Field to Market is facilitated by The Keystone Center, an independent, non-profit organization specializing in collaborative decision-making processes for environment, energy, and health policy issues. Analyses for the report were conducted by IHS Global Insight. For more information, visit www.fieldtomarket.org

For more information, contact:
Courtney Moscovic
214-665-1364 (office)
courtney.moscovic@fleishman.com

FtM has developed the Fieldprint Calculator which is an educational tool relying on peer reviewed scientific algorithms to determine a producer’s fieldprint, or impact, on the environment. A producer inputs their management decisions into the calculator and the calculator outputs their fieldprint in five environmental resource categories and then compares them to the state and national averages. This can prove useful in multiple ways: it provides a benchmark of comparison for farmers, allows farmers to quantitatively see how their management decisions affect the environment and in turn can influence a farmer to change their management practices. This quantitative output that can influence a farmer’s management decision is the crux of sustainability because it encourages continuous improvement in agricultural management. As new technologies are developed, the sustainability needle will continue to move forward and the Fieldprint Calculator will provide farmers with information on ways to be more sustainable. Unlike many sustainability groups, FtM has a solid deliverable that is outcomes based and doesn’t scare farmers with mandates in order to be considered sustainable.

Another strong point of FtM is the diverse representation of growers, food processors, NGOs and food companies all collaborating to promote sustainability. Many sustainability efforts are weighted with a singular type of representation such as growers, conventional agriculture, organic agriculture, etc. In my opinion, this does not foster solutions to achieve sustainability, rather it generates “solutions” that are as biased as the group. FtM does not have this problem. When I attend a FtM meeting I am collaborating with unlikely partners, such as the Environmental Defense Fund, and the best part is, we are agreeing! This diverse representation ensures a fair characterization of sustainability and increases the organization’s credibility.

These two aspects of FtM ensure it is a major player in the sustainability dialogue and is here to stay. Using peer reviewed science in the development of their tool while finding consensus amongst organizations that are not always in agreement has led to their success. As a testament to their presence, other sustainability groups at the global level have reached out to collaborate with FtM because of these qualities that separate FtM from the rest.

FtM recently released a short video that explains its purpose and achievements. I encourage you to check out this rather catchy video and spread the word to promote sustainability.

by Matt Kastner
March 29, 2012

http://www.tfi.org/voice/field-market-brings-stakeholders-together-enhance-sustainability

Through this position, Luckey will oversee member collaboration to further the mission of Field to Market, coordinate with related sustainability efforts and serve as the alliance’s spokesperson. Luckey, a long-time active member of Field to Market, recently retired as executive vice president at Bunge North America.

“My work with Field to Market while at Bunge showed me the important role the alliance can play in bringing together stakeholders to better understand and advance agricultural sustainability,” Luckey said. “I am eager to make the most of this opportunity to lead the group and advance its activities as the food and fiber industry works to improve resource use and our ability to provide for future generations.”

Luckey will work closely with the Field to Market executive committee to guide the work and priorities of the alliance.

“Field to Market represents a distinct collaboration of stakeholders in the food chain as our membership represents growers, food companies, agribusinesses, and conservation organizations,” said Steve Peterson, director, sourcing sustainability, General Mills, and member of the Field to Market executive committee. “Bringing Fred on board as chairman allows the alliance to move forward under unified leadership and better advance the discussion about agricultural sustainability.”

Field to Market recently launched an updated version of the Fieldprint Calculator, an online tool designed to help farmers explore the relationships between management practices and sustainability outcomes. The tool, available at www.fieldtomarket.org, represents one of the ways the group is working to advance sustainability inside the farm gate while helping farmers tell their sustainability story.

Field to Market, The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, is a diverse initiative that joins producers, agribusinesses, food companies, conservation organizations and university and agency partners seeking to create sustainable outcomes for agriculture. Field to Market is facilitated by The Keystone Center, an independent, non-profit organization specializing in collaborative decision-making processes for environment, energy, and health policy issues. For more information, visit www.fieldtomarket.org.

For more information, contact:
Courtney Moscovic
214-665-1364(office)
214-799-9275 (cell)
courtney.moscovic@fleishman.com

The Fieldprint Calculator, first launched in 2009, is an interactive online tool for education and awareness, which explores relationships between management practices and outcomes. The Fieldprint Calculator helps growers assess corn, wheat, soybean, cotton and rice operations in terms of land use, soil conservation, soil carbon, water use, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. This is the first version of the tool to be available to rice growers.

“Questions around how food and fiber is produced are increasingly top-of-mind for consumers interested in how their food is raised, and for farmers focused on maintaining natural resources on their operations for years to come,” said Bob Young, chief economist of the American Farm Bureau Federation, which is a member of Field to Market.“The updated version of the Fieldprint Calculator strives for a balance of simplicity and accuracy. It also includes additional outcomes-based methods to help growers evaluate their Fieldprint on a local level.”

The new version of the Fieldprint Calculator features new capabilities to make results more accurate and consistent, and the improvements were made based on recommendations from growers. Data entry has been streamlined through GIS datasets and information entry points while adding sophistication and accuracy with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) RUSLE2 and the NRCS Soil Conditioning Index (SCI).

Growers can now compare their Fieldprint to similar operations across the county, state and nation, through local, state and national comparisons and scenario-based options. Other new features include crop rotation inclusion, soil carbon calculations and an enterprise budget function to analyze cost savings for on-farm decisions.

“Using the Fieldprint Calculator has been eye-opening. The tool allows me to rethink how we do specific tasks on our farm. Looking at graphs of our farm’s data helped me recognize where we could improve our sustainability,” said Brian Marshall, a corn and soybean grower in Maysville, Mo. “As a grower, I know my farm is being compared to the average for farms in our county which makes the data more relevant to us. It is easy to get started and I encourage all growers to take advantage of the economic and environmental benefits this tool provides.”

The Fieldprint Calculator is undergoing several pilot projects supported by Field to Market members to test the new features, as well as to learn more about its potential uses and future improvements. Corn growers in Nebraska worked with Bunge and Kellogg Company to use the Calculator to validate sustainable practices and identify areas of improvement within the company’s Frosted Flake production. Also, Syngenta and rice growers in the Southeast have worked together to determine opportunities to improve sustainable practices and realize economic benefits.

The Van Buren Conservation District, The Coca-Cola Company, The Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund are supporting a pilot project in the Paw Paw Watershed of Michigan while General Mills and Syngenta are also working with farmers in Idaho. The projects are designed to help improve the tools Field to Market provides to growers as well as educate growers on how to tell and improve their own sustainability story.

The Fieldprint Calculator was developed to accelerate gains made within the farm gate and help articulate those practices outside the farm gate. In recent years, conversation about sustainability-based metrics is rapidly evolving, and doing so on both sides of the farm gate. Field to Market wants to contribute to that dialog though Fieldprint Calculator 2.0.

By building awareness on these issues and sharing best practices, Field to Market is working to document accelerated improvements throughout the agriculture supply chain so that future generations can enjoy the vital products of agriculture and an ever improving environment.

Field to Market, The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, is a diverse initiative that joins producers, agribusinesses, food companies, conservation organizations and university and agency partners seeking to create sustainable outcomes for agriculture. Field to Market is facilitated by The Keystone Center, an independent, non-profit organization specializing in collaborative decision-making processes for environment, energy, and health policy issues. For more information, visit www.fieldtomarket.org.

The future of farming, food supply, and protection of natural resources are utterly interdependent.

While all economic sectors depend to some degree on ecosystem services, agriculture has the most intimate relationship with nature. Agriculture depends on healthy ecosystems for services such as pollination for nearly 75% of the world’s crop species, freshwater, erosion control, and climate and water regulation. It also employs 40% of global population and about 70% at the base of the pyramid.

At the same time, agriculture is the dominant influence on ecosystem health, with approximately 40 percent of the Earth’s land cover used for crop production and pasture. The drive for more food to feed a growing population has led to the conversion of forests into cropland, nutrient impacts on inland and coastal waters, and the use of nearly 70% of global freshwater.

Between now and 2050, the global population are expected to increase from around 7 billion to 9 billion. Much of this growth will be in developing countries where it is not uncommon for poor rural households to obtain between one-half to two-thirds of their income from the goods and services that nature provides.

The challenge of feeding a growing population while lifting millions out of poverty is daunting. Yet if sustainable farming practices are adopted, agriculture can continue to provide critical ecosystem services, such as water regulation and carbon controls, while still producing higher yields of food. There are some hopeful signs. Niger, for example, has recently witnessed a farmer-led “re-greening” movement that has reversed desertification and brought increased crop production, income, food security, and self-reliance to impoverished rural food producers. This transformation has been driven by the practice of agroforestry, which integrates trees into food crop landscapes to maintain a green cover year-round, improving soil quality, erosion control and carbon sequestration.

In the United States, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been leading the way in investing in ecosystem services. Prompted by the 2008 Farm Bill, the agency launched an Office of Environmental Markets with the aim of creating new, incentive-based revenue streams for farmers that adopt more sustainable practices. Nascent markets are now beginning to emerge, including nutrient trading in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. At the farm level, Field to Market, a non-profit U.S. initiative, focuses on sustainable practices that enhance water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. One evolving work product is the Fieldprint Calculator that farmers can use to assess the relative farming practices on his or her farm.

At a global scale, the World Economic Forum recently published Realizing a New Vision for Agriculture which seeks to integrate ecosystems services into agricultural practices. Led by several multinational companies, the roadmap encourages increased investment in agriculture for food security, collaboration at a global scale, and private sector implementation of sustainable practices.

Despite these efforts, key questions remain as the agricultural sector faces the triple challenge of population growth, ecosystem degradation and climate change: How can we ensure that, on a global scale, there are sufficient ecosystem services to maximize farm yields on a sustainable basis? What is the baseline for an adequate level of ecosystem services? And what resources, tools and incentives do farmers and ranchers need to meet it?

Next year, the Rio+20 world summit in Brazil will focus on the Green Economy and how to integrate ecosystem services, particularly for the agricultural sector. Below are opportunities for governments to ensure the future of ecosystem services for agriculture:

–Knowledge transfer – With the explosion of mobile technology, particularly in emerging markets where six in ten people have mobile phones, knowledge can be updated and communicated quickly to farmers and other stakeholders. Nokia, for example, has launched “Life Tools” to disseminate information such as market prices, agricultural input prices and weather in emerging countries.

–Farmer focus – Further development of tools and resources is urgently needed at the farm level. These should be tailored for smallholders, especially women, who make up the majority of farmers in many developing countries.

–Strengthened science-policy interface – The creation of the new UN-led Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is a much needed initiative to improve the links between emerging scientific knowledge and policy action, particularly in agriculture.

–Public-Private Collaborations – Academics, communities, governments, NGOs and business need to work together at a global and impactful scale to tackle the food production challenge.

–Alignment of policies and incentives to sustain ecosystem services – Traditionally ecosystems and their services have been carved up into separate government agencies, and separate laws, policies, and international agreements. These areas need to be better integrated and strategically aligned.

–Innovation – Innovative products and technologies are needed to maintain ecosystem services. Seeds are being developed, for example, that are drought tolerant and nitrogen efficient, and efforts are intensifying to keep crops pest and disease free. Many companies are getting involved, such as IBM, as part of their Smarter Food initiative to map the genome of some orphan crops. Research that is hoped to lead to growing more disease resistant crops.

If farmers, scientists, agricultural companies and policymakers can work together to make this agenda happen at scale, we can preserve the ecosystem services that underpin global agriculture and human wellbeing, while feeding 9 billion people.

To learn more, below is a partial listing of the numerous efforts occurring on an international, national, and regional scale.

• World Bank
• World Economic Forum
• Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
• United States Department of Agriculture
• United States Environmental Protection Agency
• World Resources Institute
• www.oecd.org/dataoecd/24/54/41882953.pdf
• EcoAgriculture Partners
• Field to Market
• Forest Trends

To share the great work of Field to Market members, the resources section of the website now provides links to members’ websites and blogs on the resources page.

For Immediate Release

Van Buren Conservation District

Contact: AJ Brucks
alison.brucks@mi.nacdnet.net
1035 E. Michigan Ave.
Paw Paw, MI 49079
P: 269.657-4030 x5
F: 269.657-4925

The Van Buren Conservation District is partnering with The Coca Cola Company, World Wildlife Fund, Field to Market: The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and The Nature Conservancy to promote best farming management practices in the Paw Paw Watershed. The collective group will use the Fieldprint Calculator, a tool developed by Field to Market, to analyze and assess how the management decisions of farmers in the region and their affect on land use, energy use, water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil loss.

The Fieldprint Calculator helps explore differing scenarios and combinations of on-farm management decisions, which may help improve natural resource management and, ultimately, an operation’s efficiency and financial return. The Van Buren Conservation District will use the tool to establish an anonymous data set of farming practices with carbon and water “fieldprints” of corn and soybean production in the Paw Paw Watershed.

To jumpstart the project, The Van Buren Conservation District is inviting landowners and agricultural producers to its first Spring Farm Tour of the year on Wednesday, March 30 at the Paw Paw Lions Club 59050 CR 665, Paw Paw, Mich.  The day will begin at 9:00 a.m. with a workshop introducing the Fieldprint Calculator and continue with a bus tour of local Paw Paw Watershed farms showcasing effective cover crops, filter strips and
no-till practices that help to “stop the slop.”

Approximately 96,400 acres of farmland are present in the Paw Paw Watershed in  Van Buren County. Approximately 22,130 of those acres are corn for grain, with an estimated 92 individual farms. Sediment and nutrients are pollutants of major concern for this area and can be greatly reduced with the adoption of agricultural best management practices such as cover crops, filter strips and conservation tillage. The Van Buren Conservation District works with landowners to initiate these best management practices and discusses
available cost share opportunities through USDA Farm Bill programs.

Ernesto Brovelli, agronomist with The Coca-Cola Company, enthuses that “this project embodies our aspiration to contribute to sustainable farming working alongside growers, NGOs, industry alliances and local partners.  It is the type of integration that is critical to developing, testing and implementing true better practices.”

For more information or to sign up for this event, please call (269) 657-4030, ext. 5. Registration is free, but space is limited.

PAW PAW – A group of Van Buren County farmers went on a field trip Wednesday. Literally.

The Van Buren Conservation District invited the farmers to get on a bus and travel to several farms in the Paw Paw and Decatur areas in order to kick off a grant program designed to teach better soil conservation methods.

They walked through fields to see the benefits of such conservation techniques as no-till farming, and the use of cover crops and filter strips.

Contributed photo. Jared Foster of the Van Buren Conservation District holds a lump of sod as he discusses the benefits of cover crops at a Paw Paw Township farm Wednesday. It was part of a field trip for farmers to help educate them about soil conservation methods.

“It went great. We had a great showing,” said district director A.J. Brucks. An estimated two dozen people, including about 15 farmers, went on the farm tour, she said. “It was a good crew and the field visits were great,” she said. “The weather wasn’t too bad. We even got a little sunshine.”

The conservation district received a $25,000 grant to teach corn farmers in the Paw Paw River Watershed this year how to use free online software to collect data and help them adopt better farm management practices.

The district will teach corn growers to use the Fieldprint Calculator, and the data provided by those farmers will then allow conservation district staff to develop strong data related to the watershed.

The field trip started with a detailed presentation on how the specialized software works. Technician Jared Foster used data provided by a Hamilton Township farmer to show how the system works.

“I think people got the idea off it pretty well,” Foster said.

The grant is from the Coca-Cola Co. and the World Wildlife Fund, and is renewable for another $25,000 next year.

The Fieldprint Calculator software was developed by the Field to Market organization. It is free for use by the public, and can be found on the Field to Market website.

The conservation district will use the grant money to do outreach programs to educate the watershed’s corn farmers, and to train the farmers on using the software.

All data collected will be anonymous.

The Fieldprint Calculator helps explore differing scenarios and combinations of on-farm management decisions, which may help improve natural resource management and an operation’s efficiency and financial return. The Van Buren Conservation District will use the tool to establish an anonymous data set of farm practices with carbon and water “fieldprints” of corn and soybean production in the Paw Paw Watershed.

To initiate the project, The Van Buren Conservation District will host area landowners and agricultural producers at its a spring farm tour, Wednesday, March 30, beginning at the Paw Paw Lions Club, 59050 CR 665, with a workshop introducing the Fieldprint Calculator. From there, a bus tour will take participants to local Paw Paw Watershed farms, showcasing effective crop covers, filter strips, and no-till practices that help “stop the slop.”

According to AJ Brucks of the Conservation District, there are approximately 96,400 acres of farmland in Van Buren County’s Paw Paw Watershed. About 22,130 of those acres are corn for grain, with an estimated 92 individual farms. Sediment and nutrients are pollutants of major concern for this area and can be greatly reduced with the adoption of agricultural best management practices such as crop covers, filter strips and conservation tillage, Brucks noted. “The Van Buren Conservation District works with landowners to initiate these best management practices and discusses available cost share opportunities through USDA farm bill programs.”

For more information or to sign up for the workshop and tour, call (269) 657-4030, ext. 5. Registration is free, but necessary as space is limited.

Source: The Courier-Leader