Sustainability/stewardship index has arrived

At long last, the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops has arrived. I shouldn't put it in those terms, as Jonathan Kaplan of the NRDC gave me some grief for prodding the group on the tardiness of the news release.
The wait was worth it, from what I can surmise. We'll have some coverage in The Packer, of course, but here is a little from the news release:

The project is currently seeking public comment on an initial list of issues it believes should be measured to assess sustainable performance. The proposed issues and a list of current participants may be found at the project’s web site at www.stewardshipindex.org. The project is encouraging broad participation from interested stakeholders across the specialty crops industry, including technical experts and public interest organizations.

Stewardship/sustainability index soon coming?

Still waiting on the official news release announcing the "stewardship index for specialty crops." Tim York told The Packer about this effort at the PMA and indicated a news release wasn't too far off, but so far the participating associations/NGOs have not put out a joint release. Coverage in the Nov. 17 issue of The Packer, from the Western Growers annual convention, most accurately described what is coming:

Jonathan Kaplan, director of the Sustainable Agriculture Project in the San Francisco office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, said his group has been working on a sustainability project called the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops.
This effort brings together producers, buyers and nonprofit groups to "develop or adopt specific, measurable and verifiable outcomes-based metrics for documenting and improving sustainable performance in the specialty crop sector."
Western Growers is an initial participant, as are the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C., and the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del.
Kaplan said there are more common goals between producers and environmental groups than they both acknowledge.
"We've got to keep farmers on the land or it becomes car habitat with more congestion and pollution," he said.