I think a lot about greenwashing and the terrible toll it could have on corporate sustainabilty movements. Here’s some thoughts I had after reading this question in a group I am in at on LinkedIn.
There is a new ANSI process to develop sustainability standards for agriculture and the broader food system. My first impression is that sustainability standards for something as diverse, site speciific, crop specific, and embedded in relationships as agriculture is likely to encounter some very big obstacles. Scope control please! Have you participated in related ANSI standard-setting on sustainabilty issues? What do you think of applying ANSI to ag and food? How could this process prevent rather than support greenwashing?
You bring up some very good points. I’m currently a board member for the Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association (FTSLA) which is an association working to help the food trade industry reach sustainability goals. I also work for an organic wholesaler doing sustainability work on behalf of our company and our growers.
ANSI has been particularly interesting to watch develop. I’m not in favor of yet another label for consumers to try and distinguish. It’s clear to me that sustainability labeling might narrowly define a process that should be a big picture issue. Even worse, it runs the very real risk of falling on deaf ears, confusing consumers, and pressuring more ethical, responsible growers to compete for low price points with less responsible growers.
As someone that has worked with countless growers, shippers and distributors I can attest to the multi-faceted approach many growers are incorporating - both out of a sort of ethical spirit for sustainability, and for their bottom lines. Some growers are working towards water-use reduction, some are focused on composting, some are organic, some are using natural predator methods, and some are using experimental projects to see if new methods work. All projects and attempts should be encouraged and evaluated. All of these combined are moving sustainability measures along, even if different farmers and growers are plugging in at different points and different scales. People are attacking the problem where they can most quickly and effectively.
Creating standards for sustainability needs to be done carefully keeping in mind that growers are at different points in their ability to meet it. Using a performance metric that uses production practices to move farms along a continuum towards consistent, trackable and verifiable improvement shouldn’t rest in the hands of consumers through a label, but should rather be incentives through government support. Policies need to be developed that will reward farmers based on waste cuts, resource preservation, diverse crop cultivation, organic production methods, etc. Currently we spend billions (of taxpayer money) with the US Farm Bill that gives subsidies and loan payments to huge industrial farmers growing wheat, soybeans, corn, etc. This program, rooted in the Depression era, have long since served their purpose for stabilizing yields. In fact, they now run counter to the average family farmer as the qualifications for government funds don’t include fresh fruit and vegetables and represent the top grossing farms nationally.
Adopting a standard of continuous improvement incentivized by funding from the Farm Bill lets farms into the system at any point on the continuum, like traffic onto an freeway, as every farm moves along the road. While organic farms might be further along than a conventional farm, both are moving forward not sitting still in complacency.
A sustainability metrics system should prescribe what the road to “ultimate sustainability” would look like- with different benchmarks along the way. Growers further down the road should qualify for more government money based on great production methods, and those further behind will be motivated to get their acts together. This pressure and whole-picture perspective is one that I hope will continue with FTSLA and ANSI. It will take a combined effort of public outcry and industry push to generate enough political will to do so.
Say it!