Decoding Sustainability Across North American Agriculture
Melissa Webster
July 22, 2024
Farm Voice: Decoding On-Farm Sustainability brought together innovative farmers, industry leaders and connectors to discuss the drivers, influences and trends fueling sustainability in agriculture. From farm executive to corporate executive, our panelists shared their diverse perspectives on the impacts and opportunities of sustainability throughout the agriculture industry.
The event began with a panel moderated by Matt Weeks, AgIntel Lead at AdFarm, featuring producers Nick Guetterman of Guetterman Farms and Debbie Lyons-Blythe of Blythe Angus Farms. Working with the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Debbie shared the definition of sustainability created to apply to the entire beef value chain: take care of the land, take care of the animals, take care of the people and make money.
On Guetterman Farms, sustainability has always been about soil. Nick shared, “Soil conservation is how it started out when I was young and that kind of transitioned into soil health; saving our topsoil was where we were 20 or 30 years ago to now, we’re building our topsoil.”
Dr. Karl Wyant, Director of Agronomy at Nutrien and Allison Flinn, DVM, Executive Director, Value Chain & Consumer Affairs at Merck Animal Health, joined moderator Shaun Haney of RealAgriculture for a discussion on industry leadership in sustainability.
Just as the goal of every farmer is to preserve and improve their farm and land for the next generation, Allison believes corporations have a similar duty.
“There is absolutely an expectation and a responsibility to leave an industry better than we found it,” Allison said. “We need to innovate in a net positive manner to ensure that our outcomes for animal health, that our outcomes for patients [and our] sustainability initiatives have to be good business.”
At Nutrien, the main product Karl says the company sells for sustainability is knowledge. Improvements to soil health are a long-term game and making the commitment to experimenting and tracking key metrics over time is essential to success.
The From Farm to Fork Panel discussion, moderated by Rosie Thoni, Global Director of PR & Content at AdFarm, shared insight on public opinion of agriculture and sustainability and what consumers are looking for.
Hannah Thompson-Weeman, President & CEO of Animal Agriculture Alliance, highlighted the need for cooperation within the industry to share the right messages with consumers.
“These really important topics like animal welfare, antibiotic use [and] environmental impact need to be pre-competitive conversations, coming together to identify shared challenges, to actually have data and progress and goals that we can communicate.”
Rebecca Bartels, Vice President at Farm Journal Intelligence & Trust in Food, and Kerryann Kocher, CEO at Vytelle, echoed the need for corporations and producers to come together and own the narrative, sharing publicly about the evolving practices and technology being implemented on farms to improve sustainability.
While definitions may vary throughout the industry, the topic of sustainability will remain top of mind as farmers rise to the challenge of meeting increasing demand. The agriculture industry needs champions at all levels, from farm to boardroom, to share consistent, accurate and clear messaging about sustainability efforts being made.
Looking to delve further into decoding sustainability and learn how you can be an advocate? Watch the full event recording below.