Advancing Sustainable Agriculture: A View From The Farm

Jun 16, 2015

The sustainability organization Field to Market experienced record-breaking attendance for its spring meeting last week. In addition to participating in discussions to help the White House learn more about U.S. agriculture’s efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, the National Corn Growers Association took part in Thursday’s General Session program.

Jim Burg, a fifth-generation corn farmer from Wessington Springs, S.D., joined a panel of farmers to talk about sustainable practices in production agriculture.

“Farmers have been investing in conservation for years,” said Burg. “We have fenced creeks, maintained wildlife habitat, utilized biotechnology to help us reduce herbicides and insecticides, employed precision tools to optimize production, and worked with crop consultants to utilize our farm’s data. As a result, we have a cleaner environment, faster and more efficient ways to farm and more profitable operations. What is different today than in the past is that our customers and our customers’ customers want to know through documentation how innovations in technology and conservation practices are advancing the sustainability of crop production.”

The panel acknowledged that there is a need to demonstrate how U.S. growers contribute to sustainability within the supply chain. However, the process for doing this is not without challenges.

“Farmers need help in documenting their contributions,” said Burg. “There needs to be enough flexibility within assessments to address constraints due to extreme weather, variable field conditions and a variety of unpredictable events that could occur within a given growing season. Farmers are industry’s best bet for advancing sustainable agriculture. Practical and realistic goals will be what will drive practice adoption.”

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.