Fall
2015
grainswest.com
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“It’s a learning exercise more than
anything,” Tremorin said. “To find out
what practices are providing the best
outcomes in terms of sustainability and
efficiency.”
When we think about sustainability
in a corporate context, it is sometimes
imagined as a
necessary evil for
companies whose
primary concern is
their bottom line.
This is not the case,
according to Kehler.
“Some
perceptions of
sustainability are
that it is counter
to profit. I think if we look at what
sustainability means, one of the three
principles that are used internationally
is that it needs to make economic
sense,” Kehler said. “I don’t think that
sustainability and economics should be
in conflict. In fact, I think they more often
go hand in hand.”
If subscribing to sustainable agriculture
can be economically feasible for
companies
like BASF and
McDonald’s, it’s
a no-brainer from
their perspective.
But what do farmers
and ranchers
stand to gain when
initiatives like the
sustainable beef
pilot project and
the Canadian Field Print Calculator
are completely voluntary and offer no
monetary incentive for participation?
In the case of the calculator, Tremorin
believes the value for farmers will come
from the chance to compare themselves
to their peers and find out how they stack
up based on the sustainability indicators.
“There’s an interest among farmers in
getting value for this in terms of money,
but that’s not what the food companies
are talking about for the most part,”
Tremorin said. “They’re looking at their
established supply chains and their
established products that they buy and
they’re trying to prove that those things
are sustainable. They don’t want to pay
more for what they’re already buying.
“We’re taking the stance that the
value’s going to be in this kind of
analytical approach, having growers
compare themselves to their neighbours
with real data, and that doesn’t happen
very often out there.”
“We think there’s a need
in the market for farmers
to have ways to talk about
sustainable farming”
–Ron Kehler
FARM TO TABLE:
Farmers need ways to communicate with consumers about
sustainable agriculture, according to BASF Canada’s Ron Kehler.
