When you do what you’ve always done, you get what you’ve always gotten. That’s why those in the agriculture industry know they’ve got to do something different when it comes to sustainability. Now, thanks to GroundWork, there’s a new podcast series designed to offer a new look at tools, technologies, and practices that improve soil health and water quality. Listeners … Read More
Field to Market Announces Sustainability Metrics
Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture has made sustainability metrics and algorithms part of the Fieldprint Platform. The new tool offers commodity crop producers a way to analyze their management practices using data from partners like Ag Connections, LLC’s Land.db system, Agrible’s Morning Farm Report and Heartland Science and Technology Group’s Precision Conservation Management Portal. The integration with these systems was … Read More
FMC’s New Headquarters Earns LEED Gold Certification
FMC Corporation‘s commitment to sustainability is proven once more with the recent LEED Gold certification of their global headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The building boasts energy and water efficiency, superior indoor air quality and was created using sustainable materials. The space was developed alongside Brandywine Realty Trust, owner and developer of the FMC tower. The certification accounts for the company’s … Read More
Agren & Land O’Lakes Provide Precision Conservation
Land O’Lakes is partnering with a small business from Central Iowa focused on offering sustainability solutions to agriculture. Agren‘s technology platform will be used to deliver scalable, geo-spatial tools to find highly-erodible areas in a field and create a plan to protect the soil and improve water quality. The program, branded as SoilVantage, will be the first to offer precision … Read More
#AFBF17 Addresses the Dirt on Sustainability
One of agriculture’s biggest frustrations is sustainability; not because we aren’t doing it, but because others are defining it for us, says Katie Heger, a farmer serving on American Farm Bureau Federation‘s Dirt on Sustainability panel. “We have a market that is trying to define what [sustainability] means to us and how we’re supposed to respond to that. Sustainability, really, … Read More
Indigo Cotton Offers Gains for Growers
Last spring Indigo launched their first product dedicated to helping farmers grow food and fiber in a sustainable manner. Now the company is releasing preliminary data from Indigo Cotton, a seat treatment based on naturally occurring in-plant microbes. The product was developed to improve water efficiency while offering high yields during water stress. Grower data from West Texas and Texas … Read More
#Farmers Find #GMOs Sustainable
A new survey finds that the main reason farmers have increased their use of genetically modified (GM) crops is sustainability. The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) surveyed farmers on their attitudes towards GM technology and found that farmers believe biotechnology helps raise crops more efficiently, and that the environment and sustainability practices … Read More
USDA Awards $6.7 Million for Healthy Agroecosystems
Eighteen grants with a total sum of $6.7 million dollars are being granted by the USDA‘s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The grants are to encourage researching the interactions between components of an agroecosystem interact in food production: soil, water and sun to plants, animals and people. “Population growth, along with environmental factors, including the growing threat of climate change, … Read More
Field to Market Offers Measurable Sustainability
Addressing the issue of sustainability with international buyers of U.S. grains at the Export Exchange 2016 was Field to Market data and technology director Paul Hishmeh. Field to Market focuses on quantifiable sustainability in agriculture and Hishmeh brought an overview of what that looks like to the conference, which is co-sponsored by the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) and the Renewable Fuels … Read More
Members of USFRA Challenge Dannon
Member organizations of the U.S. Farmers and Rancher Alliance (USFRA) sent a letter to Dannon in response to their recent pledge to eliminate biotechnology in feed for dairy cows that supply milk for their yogurt. Members of the USFRA urged Dannon and other food companies to review their goals for sustainability and understand those goals cannot be achieved without the use … Read More