Field to Market officially welcomed Nebraska Extension as the newest member to this consortium of 70+ businesses and organizations (Twitter or News Release). Nebraska Extension became just the 6th university to become a member. Alabama Extension and Tennessee Extension led Extension's involvement, both joining since the start of 2015.
Field to Market is a diverse alliance of grower organizations; agribusinesses; food, beverage,
restaurant and retail companies; conservation groups; universities and
public sector partners that focuses on advancing the
sustainability of food, fiber and fuel production. The alliance creates
opportunities across the agricultural supply chain for continuous
improvements in productivity and sustainability and serves as a forum for industry-wide dialogue, grounded in science, and open to the full
range of technology choices. (Information is from FM's website).
So why should Nebraska Extension be a part of Field to Market? Here are some of my early thoughts as to why:
- True long-term sustainability of our agricultural systems will need to consider more than economic and productivity measures. Will FM's Field Print calculator measures have equal weight with "bushels per acre"? Probably not. However, Extension needs to converse with Nebraska farmers about gallons of water per bushel and pounds of nitrogen per bushel in the same discussion as more traditional measures. Some of these new metrics will influence who is in business 10 years from now.
- Customer expectations have led most food supply chain businesses to defining their sustainability. These industries recognize that the sustainability of the purchased raw products (wheat, corn, soybeans) is the "500 lb gorilla" influencing the sustainability of their business. And these companies need help in defining sustainability of the food products we produce in Nebraska. Charles Shapiro, Randy Pryor, and representatives of the Nebraska Corn Board recently met with Cargill's national sustainability team in Blair for that exact purpose. Two weeks ago, Randy's reported back from his first meeting of Field to Market about discussions with Coca Cola, Syngenta, Jack Daniels, General Mills, Kellogs, Nature Conservancy and others over beer and Hors d'Oeuvers. I assume they were discussing a sustainability metric for the beer!
- Field to Market has assembled a broad representation from those with environmental, food production, and food processing interests to develop and support a common set of metrics for measuring sustainability of our commodity crops. The tool used today is research based, technology neutral, and focused on continuous improvement. These are principles that will set well with all of us in Extension.
The Field to Market software is a continually improving product that is trying to establish metrics that are relative compared to others in the region. The value of this process is that several metrics like erosion, water use, and impact on greenhouse gases are assessed with the same tool. A producer can be inspired to improve, for example water efficiency if his peer group is getting 10 bu/irrigation in compared to his 5 bu/irrigation inch. There are certainly many details that affect this number, and the tool should be used to indicate where some management changes might improve both the metric and the profitability. From my reading of the Farm to Market materials, the metrics are calculated using known tools. For example the erosion is based on the NRCS RUSLE tool. Our interest as an extension group from UNL is to make sure that the tool is easy for producers to use and the output is relevant.
ReplyDeleteIt is also important to recognize that these companies are serious about documenting the production practices of the commodities they buy. Therefore, we need to recognize this reality, or future reality, and be prepared to satisfy our customers.