North America
North America is one of the world's most prolific agricultural producers and serves domestic and global needs. Because the land available for agricultural expansion in North America is limited, future increases in agricultural production must come from boosting the productivity of land already under cultivation. The challenge is to increase farm productivity while reducing the impact agriculture has on the environment.
Field to Market
In North America, Bunge is a member of Field to Market (www.fieldtomarket.org), an organization dedicated to improving the productivity and environmental quality of agriculture across the entire food production chain. This effort unites growers, government, conservation organizations, scholars and companies throughout the agricultural and food sector to advance sustainability in production agriculture.
Field to Market's first step was to evaluate land use, water use, energy use, soil loss and climate impact in corn, soy, cotton and wheat production over the past two decades in order to establish a baseline for measuring the environmental and social impact of agriculture. Field to Market's Environmental Indicators Report found that production agriculture has become increasingly efficient over time. A next-generation report will assess water quality and biodiversity indicators.
Calculating the "fieldprint" of farms
Based on the Environmental Indicators Report, Field to Market has developed a "fieldprint" calculator for farmers. This free online tool allows farmers to evaluate the efficiency of their farms with respect to their use of natural resources – land, soil and water – and crop inputs – energy, nutrients and crop protection products – and compare their performance with local, state and national averages. Armed with this information, farmers can work to improve their management of natural resources and produce crops more efficiently and profitably.
Next Steps
Field to Market is developing additional sustainability indicators, including water quality, biodiversity, ecosystem services and economic and social metrics, to be integrated into the fieldprint calculator. The ultimate goal is to marry data with technology and support the implementation of production systems that will drive broad-based improvement in sustainability performance.