Wheat and chaff

Ag industry grapples with sustainability

Posted
Judging by a conference at MSU´s Kellogg Center, Michigan´s agricultural leaders are coming to grips with sustainability in much the same way movie and music moguls reacted to the birth of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s.

The kids sure go for it, but is it something to embrace, exploit or co-opt? Is there money in it? And what is it, anyway?

"Social causes are a big deal for these young people who are up and coming," Keith Tinsey of Walther Farms in Three Rivers said at last week’s conference. Tinsey was one of several speakers who joked about their bald or graying heads. Keith Reinholt of the Michigan Soybean Association was another.

"I´ve been in the soybean business for 30 years and haven´t seen anything move more quickly than the sustainability concept," Reinholt said.

Pressure is surging upstream, starting with consumers and curling into a mighty wave from big producers and retailers like Frito-Lay and Wal-Mart, for the ag industry to adopt, or appear to adopt, a wide range of sustainable practices.

A couple of dozen speakers and panelists from a wide swath of Michigan´s ag industry said they are feeling the heat.

"Sustainability is here to stay," declared Karima Hudda, spokeswoman for snack food giant Mondelez (formerly Kraft). Hudda was riffing on a phrase sung by Danny & The Juniors at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll.

Ken Nobis of the Michigan Milk Producers Association drew the same conclusion at the dairy industry´s first sustainability conference in Arkansas in 2008.

"I saw immediately that [sustainability] wasn´t going to go away," Nobis said.

In its third year, the annual Michigan Agriculture Sustainability Conference is looking very sustainable. Wednesday, over 90 farmers, food processors and other state ag players attended.

"Three years ago, a lot of people said, ´Why are we doing this?´" said Jim Byrum, president of the Michigan Agri- Business Association.

Nobis told the group the ag industry needs to be involved in the "process to define sustainability." He said the term was "convoluted by the other side," without being specific about who the "other side" is.

Several speakers took a stab.

The award for vaguest definition goes to Tim Boring, vice president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association: "It´s an ability to expand how many dimensions you´re juggling."

It sounded like a nice way of saying "one more damn thing farmers have to deal with."

Reinholt was more specific. He said the state´s soybean industry has settled on three pillars of sustainability: "economic viability, environmental stewardship and social sensitivity."

The practices discussed at the conference ran a wide gamut, from practical advice on conserving energy and water on the farm to puffery from Mondelez CEO Irene Rosenfeld (via video) about "mindful snacking" (referring to a new line of bite-size cookies).

Hudda showed a montage of Ghanian cocoa farmers’ hopeful faces as they are inspired by "joy ambassadors" from big buyer Mondelez. She gave no specifics about how the farmers´ lot is being improved by Mondelez.

But there was some wheat along with the chaff.

Mondelez, a major buyer of Michigan wheat, has signed on to an unusual partnership with The Nature Conservancy, MSU researchers and the Michigan Agri-Business Association to gather data on the Saginaw Bay watershed, the largest drainage basin in Michigan. The bay is nearly surrounded by farmland and is under intense pressure from runoff and other pollution sources.

"There´s an opportunity for the agricultural leaders of Michigan to engage in scale," Hudda said. "We´re not just working with a few farmers here and there, but impacting the entire industry and all crops."

Aside from Rosenfeld´s (taped) call for "a purpose larger than just making money," the MSU conference maintained a shareholder-meeting atmosphere.

"Protecting the well-being of the planet is a business strategy for Mondelez, and we emphasize that it is a business strategy," Hadda said.

Other speakers stuck to the sweet spot where sustainability helps the bottom line. Chuck Kubisch of Michigan Agricultural Commodities told the group how he saved $100,000 in energy costs at grain processing plants at Brown City and Marlette, Mich., mainly by installing variable frequency motors that adjust speeds of fans and blowers by computer.

Between sessions, Keith Tinsey of Walther Farms said Kubisch´s talk inspired him to go ahead with an energy audit, an expense he´d been putting off for years.

Mike Harding of Mauser, a worldwide recycler and manufacturer of containers, gave the group a glimpse into the outsized world of recycling, country style. Harding´s Michigan-based company, G. Phillips & Sons, specializes in recycling colossal plastic containers used on farms, such as 55-gallon drums, jerry cans and the ubiquitous "tote tank," huge liquid storage units that stack like cubes.

On the farm, plastic jugs are often tossed into a burn pile, Harding said.

"They say it used to happen,´´ he said.

"Well, it happens all the time. Nobody likes to talk about it."

Harding told the group about free programs, including on-site pick-up programs, that make it more convenient for farmers to recycle big containers.

"In the ag world, when it comes to recycling, everybody´s green until somebody has to pay for it," Harding said.

Even if ag leaders are convinced that sustainability will not fade away, an undertow of resistance is not likely to subside soon.

Boring admitted that sustainability "has been a challenge for many in the ag community."

On the morning of the conference, Cramer and a few other speakers drove together to East Lansing from Franken muth. The conversation in the car, as Cramer described it, was directed at an amorphous group of sustainability advocates.

"It feels like a vocal minority is setting the policy for the rest of the country," Cramer said.

As the conference wound down, two attendees slipped away to adjoining urinals in the men´s room. One of them, a cucumber farmer, was telling horror stories about reporting requirements from buyers. "Every time he used a pesticide, they wanted him to report it within 24 hours," he said, shaking his head.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here




Connect with us