Fall
2015
grainswest.com
23
USTAINABILITY MEANS A LOT
of things to a lot of people, and
coming up with a one-size-fits-
all definition is a nearly impossible task.
Despite this inability to pinpoint the
word’s meaning, it has become a crucial
part of modern agriculture. With each
passing year, sustainability also becomes
more important to consumers, whose
calls for products that are verifiably
sustainable are becoming too loud to
ignore. As a result, countless companies
big and small that work with farmers and
agricultural products on a day-to-day
basis have committed to sustainability—
for their customers, for their consciences
and even for their bottom lines.
One of these companies is
multinational chemical juggernaut
BASF—a familiar face for many farmers
who use their crop-protection products
season to season. As a company that
interacts with farmers on a daily basis
and equips them with tools vital to their
livelihood, BASF has an important role to
play in on-farm sustainability.
“Our firm conviction is that farming is
the most important or the biggest job on
earth,” said Ron Kehler, business director
of crop protection for BASF Canada. “So
we’re trying to develop tools that help
them farm sustainably.”
For BASF, one of the most significant
contributions the company can make
to sustainable agriculture comes from
research and development, yielding
new technologies and products that
help farmers achieve higher yields with
fewer resources.
“We’ve been bringing innovative
products for crop production to the
market for many years,” Kehler said. “We
see that those tools are helping farmers
get the most yield and the best quality
off of every acre.
“That’s a pretty foundational principle
to how we look at sustainability—making
sure we’re not using more acres to feed
the world, but we’re using the acres we
have more effectively and in a way that
they’ll be there to produce food for the
next generations.”
Global fast-food giant McDonald’s
has also started to focus on sustainability
in its operations, the most recent
example being its sustainable beef pilot
project. As part
of the project,
McDonald’s
Canada has
partnered with
several Canadian
beef producers to
assess and verify
the sustainability
of their operations. More than 30
on-farm verifications have already been
completed, and McDonald’s Canada
hopes to verify close to 300 producers
through third-party verifier Where
Food Comes From by the time the pilot
project wraps up in April 2016.
The pilot project was conceived
as a response to the demands from
McDonald’s customers for more
information about their food and
whether it is sustainable.
“First and foremost, it’s important
to us because it’s important to our
consumers,” said Jeff Fitzpatrick-Stilwell,
S
senior manager of sustainability for
McDonald’s Canada. “Our consumers
want safe, high-quality and sustainably
sourced food. We’ve been really good
about being able to talk to them about
the safety and high quality, and now
we’re trying to be able to do the same
thing around sustainability.”
For McDonald’s, the sustainable beef
pilot project is only the beginning, and
the company hopes to continue growing
the amount of sustainable beef it can
source not only in Canada, but globally.
The commitment to sustainability doesn’t
end with beef either.
“Our aspirational goal is really to
be sourcing
everything—
whether it’s toys,
packaging, beef
or ingredients like
palm oil that go
into other items—in
a responsible and
verified sustainable
manner,” Fitzpatrick-Stilwell said. In
step with this goal, McDonald’s Canada
announced in September that its
restaurants would transition to using 100
per cent Canadian cage-free eggs over
the next 10 years.
Consumer demand has been the
impetus for many of the sustainability
initiatives that are happening in the
industry. However, proving that a
particular product or production process
is sustainable is easier said than done,
especially when definitions of the term
vary so drastically. This can put companies
like BASF in a challenging situation.
“Our consumers want
safe, high-quality and
sustainably sourced food.”
–Jeff Fitzpatrick-Stilwell
For modern farmers and agribusiness,
sustainability is the name of the game
BY TYLER DIFLEY • PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF BASF SE AND McDONALD’S CANADA
