Sustainability Challenges and Tools

Sustainability in the ag industry has gained a lot of traction, but appears to be at a crossroads.  It has grown from a niche area of interest to a limited few, to a national and global issue. However, issues are being raised that require decisions that have the potential for being divisive, or pushing some participants down a different path.


Last week The Leonardo Academy National Sustainable Agriculture Standard Committee released their 395 page draft report on sustainability.  They are trying to gain agreement on standards, definitions, measurements and more.  This process has proven to be highly controversial, with several members (primarily key commodity organizations) dropping out of the process as it became evident that it was moving towards including so many parameters that it would be difficult to gain agreement and too costly to implement.


Many participants in the food chain are concerned about sustainability issues though: the growing global population and shrinking resources.  One effort that is moving forward is using technology to help participants measure what they are doing to give them the information to empower their decision making for sustainability issues.  Field to Market has a Fieldprint Calculator that helps educate farmers in how their choices would impact natural resource management and sustainability.  The key indicators included are: land use, soil loss, soil carbon, irrigation water use, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.  The tool measures these vs state and national averages.


Tensions regarding natural resource use are not likely to go away, so we need to find tools and approaches that bring parties together to work towards solutions.  Technology seems to be one way to help give people the tools they need to make better informed decisions about sustainability.  Technologies are sprouting up all around us, so stay tuned for more to come.