04/20/07 Working to balance sustainability certification demands

Farm and Ranch April 20, 2007 A recent trend among commercial purchasers of agricultural commodities concerned about protecting their brand is to demand ag sustainability audits from growers. Chris Voigt, Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission says a few customers are now requiring producers to go through certification audits for things like food safety, environmental and social issues. Voigt: "So the Potato Commission has taken a role in the potato industry in trying to balance the needs of our customers and the needs of our growers. One of the exciting things Bob is that a lot of what our customers are asking for we are already doing. The challenge is just going to be to document everything the grower is doing so that we can meet their needs and go through their audit certification process." Voigt says Sysco, the largest food service distribution company, recently put a program into place and McDonald's is expected to roll theirs out soon. He says what the industry wants to avoid is every customer having their own certification program which would be a bureaucratic mess for producers trying to comply with each one. Voigt: "You'd have to hire someone full time to manage all that. So at the Potato Commission we are trying to standardize all that into one program that all the customers will accept." Voigt believes sustainability audits are just going to be a cost of doing business and what the Commission is seeking to avoid is a lot of added cost for producers. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.