Sustainable Made Easier Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. As we learn more about sustainability in agriculture the Potato Sustainability Alliance is trying to make the practices as simple as possible.Because, PSA Executive Director, John Mesko says farmers have no interest in harming their environment, the food they produce, or consumers …
MESKO … “Absolutely not. Farmers live in the environment that they work with, right. So, no farmer wants to negatively impact the environment. They drink the water. They eat the food that’s grown there. They breath the air and their families and extended people that they know are all part of that. So, no farmer wants to do that.”
But, Mesko says, those farmers are operating businesses out there …
MESKO … “The challenge is that we need to, as an industry, incorporate sustainability and farmer profitability together. It can’t be one or the other.”
Mesko say, we’re not telling farmers what to do …
MESKO … “We aren’t prescribing. It’s not our business to tell a farmer how to raise potatoes. We don’t do that. But we do understand sustainability and the various impacts of farming practices on that. And so, we want to tell farmers, well, here’s some things that you could do. You don’t have to do them, but you could, and this is what we think would be the impact.”
Mesko says with a sustainability app coming online soon, they should have even more information to share in the years ahead.