It is up to farmers to meet that challenge, though defining sustainability has proved challenging in itself.
The quest to establish a hard-and-fast definition of sustainable production led to a split between leading farm groups and the Leonardo Academy, a Wisconsin nonprofit that establishes sustainability standards for everything from greenhouse gas emissions and green buildings to inventory management and gaming. The academy’s sustainable agriculture standard, according to its website, is under development — just as it was five years ago, when major farm groups walked out of a Leonardo meeting in Fayetteville and set out to find their own path to sustainability.
At that February 2010 Fayetteville meeting, a definition of sustainability on which the farm groups had reached consensus was withdrawn before the task force could vote on it and replaced with one drafted by Leonardo staff. Rather than sign on to a definition that drew what they saw as an arbitrary line, the groups resigned from the National Sustainable Agriculture Standard Working Group en masse. They got together with the University of Wisconsin and a new National Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture, which intended to establish “a process for developing sustainability initiatives that meet value chain expectations.” In other words, defining sustainability by what food merchandisers say it is, so companies can tell customers their products have a reduced or minimal impact on natural resources depletion.
Establishing a path to sustainability is the goal of Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, a project driven by the Colorado-based Keystone Policy Center. Dozens of farm groups and agribusinesses have taken part, including the University of Arkansas. Sustainability in agriculture or any other endeavor is defined by whether a practice can continue indefinitely, not just in terms of its use of resources like soil and water, but also in social and economic terms — whether the practitioner can stay in business, and whether the practice is acceptable to the community.
Sustainability studies by commercial farm interests typically look at the production footprint per unit of production, on the grounds that a growing and more affluent world population requires increases in food production. Agricultural interests are already able to demonstrate that, over the years, they have substantially reduced their use of resources relative to production. A study commissioned by The Rice Foundation found that from 1987 to 2009, the amount of land needed to produce 100 pounds of rice declined by 21 percent, the amount of water by 33 percent and energy use by 52 percent. Groups that represent other farm enterprises have generated similar data, which provides a benchmark for companies like Wal-Mart.
The influential Bentonville-based retailer has been spearheading the effort to drive further sustainability in agriculture. For several years, the company has shown preference to agricultural producers that can deliver fruits and vegetables to its stores over a relatively short distance, thereby guaranteeing both freshness and reduced fuel use. It uses a Sustainability Index, developed with the aid of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and other members of The Sustainability Consortium to measure how suppliers of goods sold at Wal-Mart’s stores are minimizing their consumption of resources. And with the help of Field to Market, it is requiring suppliers whose products contain corn, wheat and soybeans to use research developed by the index to get optimal performance out of fertilizers.
At last October’s annual Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting, the company announced a new four-pillared plan designed to develop a sustainable supply chain. Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart president and CEO, said, “Food is our No. 1 category worldwide, and … paving a sustainable future for food is necessary for society and our business.”
Wal-Mart says it will reduce the “true cost” of food, with emphasis over the next decade on improving agricultural yields while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water use. And in March, Wal-Mart launched a Sustainability Leaders shop that tells consumers which goods offered online by the retailer were produced at the highest levels of the sustainability index. More than 10,000 products are identified as leaders in specific categories, including grocery products ranging from meat and chicken to dairy products and eggs, produce and processed goods like cereal and beverages.
The move to define farm goods as sustainably produced has come a long way in a relatively short time. It’s worth noting that an earlier effort failed by the federal government in the 1980s to promote low-input sustainable agriculture; agribusinesses persuaded farmers that low input meant lower yields. But this newer movement is being driven by the agribusinesses themselves, and that’s a strong headwind.
When The Rice Foundation report was published, Newport rice farmer and USA Rice Federation Sustainability Task Force Chairman Jennifer James said, “The ongoing challenge for the industry will be to continue to produce more rice that is both sustainable and profitable for farmers.”