Incentives for Sustainable Practices on the Farm
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Most major food companies have come forward with some sort of sustainability pledge. But are there any real actions happening in agricultural supply chains to make these pledges a reality? Arable CEO Jim Ethington thinks now that there are more government dollars thrown into the equation, more farmers will be incentivized to make operational changes.
Ethington… “What I've started to see is real follow-through on some of that and real funding and dollars coming into agriculture through government programs. Look at the climate-smart program, you look at some of the other pools of funding that are being deployed to promote and realize those programs, more sustainable practices, and practices that drive real conservation. And I think you also see these connections coming through the supply chain. So for the folks who are buying that offtake from the farm, whether it's fresh produce, you know, or grain or whatever it may be, what you're, I think going to see start to emerge is that there there's a stronger ability to connect those two and reward the farmers that are engaged in these practices that the consumer wants, that the food company wants to help them deliver. We will move from this concept of like, why don't we just ask all the farmers to behave differently, but instead to say, hey, this is actually worth money to us as the people buying that crop and moving it into the market, or it's worth money to us as consumers. And so we're willing to make the economics work. If there's value in it for each level in that supply chain, then there should be value that accrues down to the farm.”
Ethington says we’re still a ways from that, but he sees progress in the right direction.
