Potato Sustainability Alliance Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Sustainability is a driving force in the way agriculture is done and it’s improving every day.
Potato Sustainability Alliance CEO, John Mesko says reports from their membership allow them to better track what’s being done and how we’re improving …
MESKO … “Our current work is helping farmers understand the impact of their practices. But that’s just one piece of it. The next, inevitable step is to share with them opportunities where they can learn about ways to improve.”
A new platform released this year, Mesko says allows members to share more of what they learn with other members …
MESKO … “There’s two real powerful parts of that. One is, for years growers have said, well, you’re asking me how I’m doing potato production, but you’re not telling me anything I can do to improve. So here, we’re answering that one very, very realistically.”
Because, Mesko says the results are coming from others who are facing many of the same issues …
MESKO … “But we’re also building credibility into the system because we’re a community of growers that are leveraging these best-practices, and we’re moving in the right direction. And being able to say to a buyer of potatoes, hey this group of growers has access to continuing educational opportunities supporting the areas that they want to improve. That’s very powerful.”
Mesko says the more we share our practices and results, the more credibility we provide to our sustainability.
