| | | | | | | | | Sustainable Ag Requires Understanding, Respect And Support | | | This past week saw two big net zero emissions commitments in the food space, by McDonald’s and Mars, as they announced their participation in the United Nations Race to Zero campaign. There is no doubt that curbing greenhouse gas emissions is urgent and essential, especially given this summer’s IPCC conclusion that human-induced climate change is taking place even faster than we thought. If history is any guide, these two long-time sustainability leaders might be setting a new bar for food companies to follow. Which raises an interesting question: How exactly will they get there? With much of food’s carbon footprint embedded in the agriculture supply chain, it seems that these goals rely on broadscale change by farmers, ranchers and growers. There is no shortage of initiatives that have earned food companies’ support as they race to zero. But I do wonder how many of those efforts are grounded in the reality that every bushel, every pound, every acre is the result of a human being making a decision. In his blog today, my colleague Drew Slattery notes that “we cannot change how land is managed without empowering those who work the land to do so.” To me, this is the next frontier of sustainable ag – deep understanding, respect and support for the producer decision-maker on an individualized and trusted basis. Because in the age of the Anthropocene, all environmental change requires human change first. Yours in regenerative ag, Executive Vice President, Trust In Food™ | | | | | | |
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| | | | | | | | Not Acres, But People | | | | Shared by Drew Slattery, human dimensions of change lead, Trust In Food: Every person, and every farmer, has their own unique outlook on agriculture, on business and on life. Our thoughts, feelings, emotions, fears and desires drive that behavior and decision-making. Complicating this is the diversity of our nation’s natural resources, ecology and weather. Each farm is as unique as a fingerprint. Changing the way an acre is managed ultimately means changing much more, including the way people do business, years of tradition and cultural norms, personal and brand identities, and so much more. Here’s how we can support farmers on their journey by centering our work on their needs. | | | | | | |
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| | | | | | | | | Shared by Nate Birt, vice president, Trust In Food: A new $10 million grant seeks to unlock insights about regenerative ranching practices in Texas and Oklahoma. Cover crops, crop rotation and grazing are among the activities researchers will study. The program is particularly noteworthy because it will take place in an area that receives substantially less rain than other geographies where regenerative principles have been studied most closely. | | |
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| | | Shared by Rebecca Bartels, director of business development, Trust In Food: Several CIG-funded pilot programs helped demonstrate how cost-share and technical assistance could facilitate reintroducing small grains and cover crops into traditional rotations. And now Practical Farmers of Iowa and collaborators are looking to address the lack of a downstream market by working with 11 supply chain partners, including Cargill, General Mills, McDonalds, Oatly and PepsiCo.
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| | | Shared by Emily Smith, community engagement coordinator, Trust In Food: Although rural broadband accessibility has increased in the past few years, access is still lower than in suburban and urban areas. Farmers and their families, a majority of whom live in rural communities, struggle to get sufficient internet access as they evaluate carbon market opportunities that require robust data capture and analysis. Nebraksa farmer Lukas Fricke shares how his family farm navigates these realities in this article.
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