What does sustainable agriculture look like? - Ag Weekly

What does sustainable agriculture look like? - Ag Weekly

by Cindy Snyder Ag Weekly correspondent
Friday, March 5, 2010 4:08 PM CST



BOISE - Ask a dozen people what sustainable means and you're likely to get at least a half dozen different answers. It doesn't matter whether they are consumers or food producers.

That was evident at the 2010 Larry Branen Ag Summit that featured "sustainability" as its theme.

"I look around this room and see many second, third and fourth generation farmers, but we've lost the word 'sustainable', " said Doug Jones, who farmed with his father and brother in the Twin Falls area for 35 years. He is now a director in a non-profit organization called Growers for Biotechnology, Inc., dedicated to promoting research, development and acceptance of agricultural biotechnology.

Jones' implication was that the word "sustainable" has been co-opted by the organic movement and now refers to only "green" production practices.

But Chad Henggeler, who runs an orchard near Fruitland, said he didn't mind the word sustainable. "It's organic that I don't have much time for," he said. "Sustainable means not robbing the future for today's gains."

That means providing a healthy, safe product that people want to buy and consistently reminding consumers that American producers are doing good things for the environment. Nothing annoys him more than going to a grocery story and seeing a six-pack of organic apples wrapped in hard plastic. It took more water to make that package than raise the apples, he said. That doesn't match his definition of sustainable.


While the industry leaders who participated in the panel discussion on sustainability in Idaho agriculture agreed producers need to do a better of job of telling their stories to the general public, actually getting the message out is more difficult than shooting a pretty video and uploading it to a website.

The problem, said Rick Stott, former vice president at Agri Beef, is that agriculture is good at telling consumers how sustainable it is, but doesn't stop to listen to what consumers are saying.

Internet companies can now track bloggers to determine how influential those individuals are. Research has also shown that industries that reach out to influential bloggers have an opportunity to insert informed and intelligent comments into online conversations.


With the internet agricultural producers have a tool to listen to the conversation about food safety or sustainability. "Wouldn't it be great to see how bloggers are using the word 'sustainable' and then insert your definition?" he asked. "If we listen, then we can talk and then we can engage them."

For Travis Jones, executive director of the Idaho Grain Producers Association, the discussion about sustainability is mute without also talking about involvement.

"Consumers aren't connected to their food, we all know that," Jones said.

"But if you're not involved beyond the little circle of your farm, you can't have an influence. You can keep going out and doing the same thing every day, but it can't be sustainable if you're not involved."

He sees what he describes as a discouraging and disturbing trend towards apathy among agricultural producers. For example, IGPA has 600 grower members, yet statistics show that the state has about 5,000 wheat growers.