Fall
2015
Grains
West
24
“I think this is a difficult challenge for our industry,” Kehler
said. “When a consumer says they want to make sure their food
is produced sustainably, they don’t really know what it means.
People think they know what it means, but when they have to
put words around it, they have a hard time articulating it.
“I like to think that sustainable farming and modern
agriculture are basically the same thing—getting more food
from every acre. The more we can change the perception
that sustainable farming is something other than that is really
helpful.”
In the absence of a hard-and-fast vision of sustainability,
companies are ramping up their outreach campaigns in an
attempt to bridge the information gap between producers,
industry and consumers.
“Consumers want to make sure that their food is being
produced sustainably, so I think we need to help inform them
and provide information that gives them confidence that it is
being grown sustainably,” Kehler said. “That’s a job that we as
an industry member, as well as our customers, share together.”
According to Fitzpatrick-Stilwell, widespread interest in
sustainability and product sourcing will be the new norm going
forward. As a result, all members of the food supply chain will
have to work together for Canadian agriculture to put its best,
most sustainable face forward.
“This is obviously where retail and food service are going on
a macro level,” he said. “Our consumers are more and more
interested in where their food comes from.
“All producers are eventually going to have to work with the
retail end to figure out how to credibly tell the positive story
that exists for Canadian agriculture.”
Even if producers do want to tell the positive story of
Canadian agriculture to consumers, they often lack data or
other proof to demonstrate that their on-farm practices are
sustainable.
“We think there’s a need in the market for farmers to have
ways to talk about sustainable farming,” Kehler said. “We want
to make sure that our farmers and our staff have the tools to talk
about sustainable farming with the people they interact with.
I think we’re just missing the language to talk about this good
work that we’re doing.”
A new tool has debuted that could provide the valuable
sustainability metrics Canadian farmers need in order to
communicate effectively with consumers and the food
production value chain. The Canadian Field Print Calculator has
finished beta testing and a number of pilot projects are set to
begin this fall. The calculator was the product of a partnership
that includes Pulse Canada, Grain Farmers of Ontario, the
Canadian Canola Growers Association and CropLife Canada,
among others.
“We have a group of organizations and companies in
Canada that have been working together to respond to what
we felt was kind of a growing demand for either sustainable
products or information related to the sustainability of
Canadian crops,” said Denis Tremorin, director of sustainability
at Pulse Canada and the driving force behind the calculator’s
development. “We’ve had about 40 producers participate in
that process and we have 120,000 acres worth of data from
500 fields.”
To use the calculator, farmers input information about
their farm practices, soil and climate, including details about
the equipment they are using, their location and time for
field operations. This information is used to determine the
sustainability of an individual crop based on five indicators:
land use efficiency, soil erosion risk, energy use, climate impact
and soil carbon release. The calculator produces reports
of field-by-field performance that farmers can analyze and
compare against their peers.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
McDonald’s Canada plans to verify
roughly 300 beef producers as sustainable by April 2016.
