2017 ASABE AIM Sustainability Paper Home Page

Abstract

A scalable implementation of metrics-based sustainability evaluation in agricultural field operations: ADAPT and the FieldToMarket API

Barnes, Edward M.; Ferreyra, R. Andres; Haringx, Shannon C.; Matlock, Marty D.; Sharp, Brandon S.

Consumers are increasingly concerned about the sustainability of production agriculture. This translates into a growing mandate for growers to improve and document the sustainability of their field operations. It also provides both opportunity (a product from a well-documented, more sustainable operation is expected to sell better than one perceived as less sustainable) and a burden (the data-intensive management of a sustainability evaluation framework).

Improvement requires an objective baseline against which growers can compare the effects of their production practices. Outcomes-based sustainability evaluation methods, such as the Field To Market® Alliance’s Fieldprint®, provide this: the Fieldprint for a field or paddock encapsulates a set of metrics that describe the use of resources such as water, carbon, energy, and soil on that field. It can be compared with aggregated (e.g., local, regional) averages, used to drive what-if scenarios, and thus support sustainability-aware decision-making. While this approach does not currently incorporate every known factor of the sustainability of an enterprise (e.g., social impact), it does provide a framework where different sustainability factors can be evaluated using scientific principles, where evaluation methods can be discussed and updated over time, and where the number of evaluated factors can be expanded as objective methods are developed.

The second aspect of the grower mandate (documentation) is strongly tied to usability and scalability. Widespread implementation of an outcomes-based, metrics-mediated approach is contingent on the solution being easy to use by busy growers. Given that Fieldprint evaluation is a data-intensive process, it makes sense to incorporate it into the grower’s regular business workflow in a way that minimizes extra data entry.  The grower’s own Farm Management Information System (FMIS) enables extracting value from field operations recordkeeping in multiple ways, so it becomes a natural candidate to house Fieldprint evaluations. Scalability requires simple, cost-effective solutions that can be easily adopted by FMIS companies.

This paper describes an implementation approach based on combining the Field to Market Application Programming Interface (API, a standardized, extensible way of delivering the fieldprint calculation algorithms) with the common object model and plug-in architecture of AgGateway’s Ag Data Application Programming Toolkit (ADAPT, an open-source industry framework of data conversion tools developed to enable interoperability among different equipment and software systems). By leveraging both the Field to Market API and ADAPT (which FMIS companies have multiple motivations to integrate with), farm management information systems can scalably provide growers with a user-friendly framework to rapidly evaluate and improve the sustainability of their operations.

Keywords: Information systems; standards; sustainability; metrics; software

Introduction

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines a Sustainable Food Value Chain as “the full range of farms and firms and their successive coordinated value-adding activities that produce particular raw agricultural materials and transform them into particular food products that are sold to final consumers and disposed of after use, in a manner that is profitable throughout, has broad-based benefits for society, and does not permanently deplete natural resources.” (Neven, 2014)  This is consistent with the "legal" definition of sustainable agriculture published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA):

The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (7 C.F.R. § 3103, 2011) defines ''sustainable agriculture'' as an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long-term:

• Satisfy human food and fiber needs.
• Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agriculture economy depends.
• Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls.
• Sustain the economic viability of farm operations.
• Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole."
•  https://nifa.usda.gov/program/sustainable-agriculture-program 

The agricultural value chain includes a diverse set of actors, each with a unique stake in the continuous improvement of sustainability in farming. New demands are being made on agriculture for the sustainable sourcing of food and fibers; the increasing pressure is primarily coming from downstream players in the value chain. Consumers are demanding food and products produced in more sustainable ways; this has led to requirements from retailers on processors and producers to provide products meeting these standards. (Crotti, 2015). The supply chain is now setting sustainability goals in response to pressure from NGOs / investors and consumer expectations. Walmart has taken the lead, and other companies are following, by setting reduction targets for water, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions, conducting life cycle assessments, and developing approaches for communication such as eco-labels and ratings. Fundamentally, this is an economic decision for the company. As stated by Rand Waddoups, Wal-Mart's Senior Director of Strategy/Sustainability (Renewable Choice Energy, 2009), “All things being equal, a [Walmart] buyer will of course choose a product that scores better on the [Sustainability] Index.”

Major brands are measuring carbon, energy, and water. Farming generally accounts for 25% to 50% of the total footprint, leading to an intensified focus on commodity production practices. (Pepsico, 2015).  The message about this measurement is clear. It is an important component of brand equity for many major labels. As stated by Levi-Strauss (2015), “Progress is woven into everything we do at Levi Strauss & Co. That means from the cotton fields to our factories to the communities where we operate, we’re doing what we can to conserve our planet’s precious resources, while also improving the lives of the people who make our products.”. Another example, from  Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer for General Mills: “Preserving and protecting the environment for generations to come is an important aspect of General Mills’ mission of Nourishing Lives. We’re proud of the progress we’re making, and we are setting more aggressive goals for even greater progress in the next five years.” (General Mills, 2010). Practices on the farm will need to support these downstream marketing labels as marketers are looking for sustainability improvements on the farm. This is the new market reality.

There are global drivers of sustainability in farming, not the least of which is solving how to feed 9 billion people by 2050. This will mean the need to produce two times more food with thirty percent less farmland per capita. This challenge must be met in the context of increasing water scarcity/decreasing water quality, and growing energy demand with limited fossil fuel supply (FAO, 2009). Agriculture’s challenge is to grow more from less. This means producing more bushels of food, feed and fiber with less land, energy and water per bushel, but, importantly, this must be done while maintaining profitability.

Farmers tend to perceive farm record keeping as onerous and not particularly useful for informing the operation. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283071541_Perceptions_and_practices_of_farm_record-keeping_and_their_implications_for_animal_welfare_and_regulation  Sustainability metrics can be especially burdensome to document as a large amount of data is required to support the measurement of the metrics.  http://www.oecd.org/tad/sustainable-agriculture/44812719.pdf  Data exchange is a potential solution to this dilemma, making the farmer’s job easier and ensuring more accurate records are transferred throughout the farming operation.  The utilization of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) is a contemporary way of achieving this data exchange, thus lessening the burden on the farmer to support sustainability claims.

The goal of this paper is to describe an implementation approach based on combining outcomes-based sustainability metrics the Field to Market Application Programming Interface (API, a standardized, extensible way of delivering the fieldprint calculation algorithms) with the common object model and plug-in architecture of AgGateway’s Ag Data Application Programming Toolkit (ADAPT, an open-source industry framework of data conversion tools developed to enable interoperability among different equipment and software systems). The specific objectives include describing different approaches to on-farm sustainability, describing the outcomes-based approach in general, the FIeldToMarket Consortium's FieldPrint approach in particular, and how FIeldPrint calculation functionality can be delivered using an application programming interface (API); introducing AgGateway and its ADAPT tools; and discussing how these tools can be integrated to provide additional value to a grower.

Telling the Sustainability Story

Many farmers are recognizing that a proactive approach to sustainability demands is a possible way to avoid arbitrary mandates that may conflict with efficient operations and sound agronomics, thus ensuring freedom to operate now and in the future.  For example, the American Soybean Association (ASA) is dedicated to developing a definition of sustainability that "encompasses profitable, intensive production and encourages consumer acceptance of biotechnology enhanced products and satisfies food, feed, fiber, and biofuel needs."  https://soygrowers.com/issues-pages/sustainability/  As stated on its website, "ASA recognizes that American soybean production is one of the most sustainable in the world and will work to ensure that our image is maintained while avoiding undue regulations and empowering movements that would jeopardize our competitive position."  https://soygrowers.com/issues-pages/sustainability/  

Often, growers have a great story to tell about how they farm sustainably.  It is a collaborative effort across the value chain to tell this story in the right way. Upstream partners in the value chain (input providers, technology partners) must think like a grower, considering before-, on- and after-the-farm conversations that will maximize farm output and income. Input manufacturers (chemicals, seed, fertilizer, equipment) are motivated to innovate in the design of products to maximize farm potential leading to higher sales. Distribution channel partners continually seek new opportunities to provide their grower customers with products and tools to become even more sustainable. They recognize that by doing so, they stand to gain deeper customer insight, strengthened customer loyalty, and increased brand equity through corporate responsibility. The sustainability story can generate benefits for all players in the value chain if told in a credible, cost-effective, and scalable way that is realistic for the farmer.

The way to measure sustainability is a major consideration in achieving these goals. Various groups are working on this problem; major players include consortia, coalitions, universities and government agencies. The USDA is actively seeking to advance sustainability in agriculture through efforts such as the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), an organization working to lobby government and influence farm regulation to promote improvement in sustainability metrics. http://sustainableagriculture.net/about-us/  Additionally, the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) promotes and rewards sustainable farming activities through grants and programs.  https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/financial/cig/ Other organizations include The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), a global non-profit organization comprised of food companies, input manufacturers, universities and conservation groups, among others. https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/about/ 

The two primary approaches to measurement are 1) inputs-based, and 2) outcomes-based. Inputs-based metrics focus strictly on reduction of inputs and tend to ignore the economic impacts of doing so.  A farm may be operating at optimal sustainability for a given resource, but inputs-based sustainability metrics may not take this into consideration and still require a reduction in the use of the resource. For example, strict reduction of the use of pesticides may reduce the output of a crop, thus affecting the economic sustainability of the farm.  The USDA National Organic Program is an example of an effort to advance inputs-based measurement.  https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/programs-offices/national-organic-program  Outcomes-based metrics emphasize the optimization of inputs to maximize outcomes, thus preserving freedom to operate. An outcomes-based approach would seek to improve continuously in areas where improvement is possible while maximizing outcomes, first and foremost preserving viability of the farming operation.  Additionally, improvements in the reduction of pesticide use may also be assumed by the pesticide manufacturer in developing more efficient formulations resulting in reduced pesticide application on the farm.  An outcomes-based measurement of sustainability will take improvements across the whole value chain into consideration when measuring optimization of inputs in relation to outcomes. Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture is an example of an effort to advance outcomes-based measurement. https://fieldtomarket.org/

Metrics-Based Sustainability, Field to Market and the FieldPrint Concept

Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture is a well-established, collaborative stakeholder group of producers, agribusinesses, food and retail companies, and conservation organizations advocating an outcomes-based approach to the measurement of sustainability. It uses a science-based approach to measuring a variety of environmental and socioeconomic indicators, with an emphasis on transparency and credibility. The metrics are purposefully practice- and technology neutral, and aim at measuring on-farm production outcomes within the grower’s control. https://fieldtomarket.org/national-indicators-report-2016/ Many suppliers are recognizing that a proactive and legitimate approach through coalitions like Field to Market is the best path forward.  As stated by the organization, "Our Supply Chain Sustainability Program provides an unparalleled platform that helps the food and agricultural supply chain benchmark sustainability performance, catalyze continuous improvement and enable brands and retailers to characterize the sustainability of key sourcing regions as well as measure and report out on progress against environmental goals." https://fieldtomarket.org/our-program/

Field to Market has identified eight key indicators for environmental sustainability against which farms can be measured for progress.  They include: 

• Biodiversity
• Energy Use
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Irrigated Water Use
• Land Use
• Soil Carbon
• Soil Conservation
• Water Quality

The metrics are calculated in relation to production units of a given commodity, thus tracking progress against output and serving as proxy for overall outcomes.  The primary intent of the metrics is to allow farms to demonstrate continuous improvement towards sustainability as an operation.  The metrics come together into what Field to Market refers to as a "Fieldprint," conveying the environmental footprint for a given field within a farm at a given time.  The Fieldprint is then monitored over time to allow the farm to tell a story of continuous improvement on its journey to increased sustainability as part of the operation's overall outcomes.

Beyond identifying metrics, Field to Market has developed a Fieldprint calculator, which is a collection of algorithms that use farm data to benchmark a farm's performance on key sustainability indicators against local and national averages.  A visual representation of this benchmarking is produced in the form of a Fieldprint Analysis, which is a spidergram displaying the farm's unique environmental footprint for key sustainability indicators as it compares to its peers within the region, state, or across the nation.  This is important because it provides a frame of reference for the farm to understand areas for improvement.  

https://fieldtomarket.org/our-program/fieldprint-platform/ 

Datasets and methodologies from multiple sources, including USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), are built into the Fieldprint algorithm for measuring these metrics on a given farm.  However, Field to Market provides farmers with more than just an algorithm to calculate sustainability metrics.  The program has been applied through targeted projects incorporating farms in select sourcing regions for Field to Market member companies.  These projects produce shared learning, anonymous peer-to-peer benchmarking of participating farmers, and education for improving crop production and natural resource management.  To date, Field to Market has conducted more than 60 Fieldprint Projects in 25 states, with nearly 1,500 participating farmers and approximately 2 million enrolled acres.  https://fieldtomarket.org/our-program/fieldprint-projects-directory/

The following table provides a description of each of the Sustainability Indicators according to the 2016 Field to Market National Indicators Report.

https://fieldtomarket.org/national-indicators-report-2016/

The data to support these indicators have been incorporated into AgGateway's toolkit for translation of data captured on the farm.  They support the sustainability component of this toolkit, which provides the ability to seamlessly move this data from the field and compile output reports on sustainability for consumption by external farm partners, such as processors or regulatory agencies.  

AgGateway and ADAPT

AgGateway is a non-profit consortium of businesses serving the agriculture industry, with the mission to promote, enable and expand eBusiness in agriculture.  Expanding eConnectivity is essential to many facets of modern ag production, including efficient use of resources, strategic planning, business management, just-in-time inventory, traceability and sustainability.

AgGateway enables eConnectivity as a means to:

• improve business processes
• help deliver excellent customer service
• streamline the supply chain
• support greater productivity and sustainable agricultural practices.

AgGateway currently has more than 230 member companies working on eConnectivity activities within eight major segments:

• Ag Retail
• Allied Providers (systems & software developers and service providers)
• Crop Nutrition
• Crop Protection
• Grain & Feed
• Precision Agriculture
• Seed
• Specialty Chemical

Each segment forms a council that operates autonomously within the overall guidelines of AgGateway. The structure allows the councils to determine their own eBusiness priorities and activities. They are responsible for funding their own projects, and each council elects its own leadership (chair and vice-chair), and appoints a representative to the Operational Management Board.  AgGateway is effective because it brings together people in a collaborative process, within and across agricultural sectors. Its working groups don’t just establish industry-wide solutions, but also implement them so that eConnectivity becomes a working reality.  http://aggateway.org/AboutUs/OurMission.aspx

One of the largest and most active councils within AgGateway is the Precision Ag Council, comprised of a variety of technology companies working to advance digital agriculture standards and interoperability on the farm.  

Formed in 2012, AgGateway's Standardized Precision Ag Data Exchange (SPADE) Project is a collaboration among agricultural suppliers of hardware, software, inputs, services, implements and vehicles for improved data exchange and interoperability. It targets farm operations of seeding, tillage, fertilizing, spraying and harvest to maximize the value of precision agriculture through seamless and transparent data exchange.  

SPADE seeks to:

• Establish a framework of standards to simplify mixed-fleet field operations, regulatory compliance, crop insurance reporting, traceability, sustainability assessment and field or crop-scale revenue management.
• Allow seamless data exchange between hardware systems and software applications that collect field data across farming operations. 
• Make it easier for growers to share data with their trusted advisors, suppliers, and other value partners, who often use different system components
• Lower the cost of entry for growers and ag retailers who want to use precision ag, through transparent data exchange and interoperability.

http://aggateway.org/eConnectivityActivities/Implementation/SPADEPrecisionAg.aspx

As part of the SPADE project, the topic of sustainability was incorporated into the work stream focused on non-mechanical harvesting.  Non-mechanical harvesting activities involve the harvesting of crops by hand without the use of mechanical automation.  Many high value fruit and vegetable crops are harvested by hand, but still require data to support traceability and sustainability reporting.  The capturing of data to support sustainability claims was taken into consideration within the context of the Field to Market Fieldprint calculator and its corresponding data requirements.  Use cases and data buckets were documented to outline processes supporting the collection of this data.  The data buckets documented were then incorporated into the Agricultural Data Application Programming Toolkit (ADAPT) developed by the ADAPT committee within AgGateway.  

The key deliverable of the ADAPT committee is a production-level, open source toolkit for use by the precision ag industry. Interoperability has been a formidable hurdle to the use of precision ag technologies. ADAPT provides an easy-to-use industry framework, with the tools to simplify communication between growers, their machines and their partners. Adoption of precision agriculture technology has been limited for several decades in part because it is not easy for growers to exchange data with the in-field machine implement control systems (MICS) and back office farm management information systems (FMIS) of their choosing.  ADAPT's toolkit can be integrated by these MICS and FMIS systems to allow for easy data translation between the systems. AgGateway is the steward of the ADAPT software assets, which are available to any interested party that is willing to accept the terms of the Open Source Software (OSS) license agreement under which the assets are provided.   

ADAPT has been developed over several years by a large, collaborative group of AgGateway members from a variety of manufacturer and agricultural software companies, who all recognized that the farmer and other agricultural users have a critical need to use data from multiple sources to improve decision processes. Once adopted, ADAPT will allow the user to move precision ag data between different software systems easily and simply. For example, ADAPT will enable farm information management applications to easily use precision ag data collected on vehicle displays (field computers).

ADAPT contains:

• A common object model for field operations.

• A set of data conversion plug-ins (both open source and proprietary).

• A plug-in management framework (a software development kit) that enables all the parts to work together.

http://aggateway.org/eConnectivityActivities/Committees/ADAPTOversight.aspx

A plug-in is an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows one system to talk to another via the web.  When two systems do not speak the same language, they can both connect to the ADAPT framework via their own plug-ins and the ADAPT framework serves as the translator between the two, allowing them to speak the same language and seamlessly exchange data.  The common object model for field operations within ADAPT enables the mapping of data from one system to another to enable this translation in a way that recognizes common data elements and connects them to one another.  

To support sustainability, the Field to Market Fieldprint calculator data elements were incorporated into the ADAPT common object model.  Additionally, a plug-in was developed to enable the capture of data from the field required by the Fieldprint calculator algorithm when incorporated into the FMIS of choice.

The ADAPT plug-in for the Field to Market calculator was developed by Ag Connections, a wholly owned subsidiary of Syngenta, a Swiss-based crop input manufacturer.  The plug-in enables Syngenta's FMIS, called Land.db, to access information to support the calculation of specific metrics.  Currently, the plug-in supports the following metrics:

Implementation: Bringing it all together (Andres)

FieldToMarket API (Brandon)

Explain how metrics inputs are expressed

Explaining how to express the metrics inputs in terms of ADAPT data model (Andres).

Show a few (10?) examples of message parameters and ADAPT

How this could work

Discussion (Shannon, Andres)  Use past papers as guide.

• The described ADAPT + F2M workflow enables scalability and usability 
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• How consumers will benefit from ADAPT - climate, food safety and traceability
  • Consumers are waging ever-increasing demands for agricultural sustainability, particularly as it relates to the impact on climate.  Greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural operations are garnering greater visibility in the public eye due to their direct link to climate change.  The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O) from agricultural activities as two major contributors to this effect. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases  As a commitment to climate control, in 2015, Field to Market pledged to support the USDA's National Climate Strategy.  This was fulfilled by developing the next generation of farm-level sustainability metrics to help farmers measure and deliver sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.  https://fieldtomarket.org/the-alliance/our-history/  In addition to climate control, consumers are increasingly concerned with food safety and traceability of food supply.  ADAPT is positioned to help meet these challenges by enabling more accurate and efficient documentation, and providing greater access to information about food production to enable more educated buying decisions.  This efficiency will reduce costs to supply this data throughout the value chain, and should result in lower costs for consumers.  By integrating the Field to Market API with ADAPT, this data will seamlessly transition from the field to consumer awareness, meeting these demands with credibility.
    
    
• ADAPT alignment with the Sustainable Agriculture Framework defined in ASABE Standard S629
  • The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has developed a standard (S629) as a Framework to Evaluate the Sustainability of Agricultural Production Systems.  This framework highlights a simplified process for continuous improvement composed of three actions: Define, Plan, and Implement.  Figure XX demonstrates these actions and the three elements of which they are composed.  This continuous improvement cycle requires an efficient flow of data throughout the farming operation to support benchmarking of key performance indicators and measurement of results.  ADAPT enables this efficient and accurate information flow to and from equipment and systems on the farm, as well as relieving some of the burden of data input on the part of the producer.  Specifically, the action to Implement is supported, allowing the efficient feedback of results to the Plan action.
    
    
    
• FMIS motivations to integrate with ADAPT and the Field to Market API
  • ADAPT allows growers the ease of moving data to/from multiple systems to drive decision making and overall farm management with mitigated risk.  Moreover, it supports the grower’s freedom to choose from among consultants, software providers, and equipment to support field operations and the seamless transfer of data among them.  Many farmers choose to utilize farm management software provided by FMIS partners, allowing them to maximize utilization of farm data, and enabling their downstream business partners to receive farm data outputs/reports to support sustainability demands.  FMIS companies are motivated to join ADAPT because it helps to reduce cost and development time to integrate data in a variety of formats from a variety of sources.  Customer satisfaction is improved through ease of use and the software's ability to provide better services through simplified data interoperability.  When the Field to Market sustainability measurement algorithms are incorporated into FMIS software, field level farm data collected by the software can be leveraged for sustainability measurement and reporting.  By adopting the ADAPT plugin, this data collection can be seamlessly integrated from field to end user.   NEED ANDRES TO FIX THIS AND EXPOUND
    
    
• Field Level vs. Whole Farm Measurement
  
  • While looking across the whole farm for sustainability improvements is important, documenting at the field level provides the most value in tracking these improvements.  Decision making can be more deliberate and precise for input and infrastructure requirements, enabling the farmer to maximize outcomes across the farm.  The Field to Market Fieldprint Calculator is intended to evaluate metrics on a single field within a farm at a given time.  The environmental sustainability indicators are tracked for the land within the defined field boundaries and provide the ability to understand sustainability performance for one farm location vs. another.  ADAPT is also engineered to incorporate data at the field level and has defined farming operations use cases to understand how to support these operations for data interoperability.  The use cases were used to develop application notes to inform adopting companies about how to implement the ADAPT framework.  Current application notes include defining Grower-Farm-Field (GFF) data, Field Boundaries, and Identification and Record Linkage.  

• • Field to Market and ADAPT are continuously improving 
    • The FIeldToMarket outcomes-based approach does not currently incorporate every known factor of sustainability. While it is a solid start to measuring important metrics for farm productivity and sustainability, more research is required to identify and develop additional metrics for outcomes-based measurement.  Field to Market does provide a framework where different sustainability factors can be evaluated using scientific principles, where evaluation methods can be discussed and updated over time, and where the number of evaluated factors can be expanded as objective methods are developed.  As Field to Market develops this framework over time, the ADAPT framework will also adjust to incorporate these expansions into the data model and the plug-in supporting the Field to Market algorithm.  As an open source framework, ADAPT will continue to evolve based on developing needs and active contributions from member companies. 
      
      
  • The Shift from Subsidies to Conservation Incentives

    • The USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service offers incentives for farmers to adhere to sustainable practices with a focus on continuous improvement.  Financial and technical assistance is provided through various programs to eligible agricultural producers to:

      • Construct or improve water management or irrigation structures (Agricultural Management Assistance Program)
      • Improve resource conditions such as soil quality,  water quality, water quantity, air quality, habitat quality, and energy (Conservation Stewardship Program)
      • Implement conservation practices, or activities, such as conservation planning, that address natural resource concerns on their land (Environmental Quality Incentives Program)

      https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/programs/?&cid=stelprdb1048817

      These conservation programs are being offered as a shift from offering crop subsidies, which provide payments for a variety of conditions on the farm.  Subsidy programs include Commodity Programs, Trade, Conservation, Nutrition, Rural Development, Research and Related Matters, Horticulture and Organic Agriculture, and Crop Insurance and Disaster Assistance Programs.

      https://www.nal.usda.gov/agricultural-subsidies

      The increasing governmental incentives for conservation practices on the farm provide further impetus for farmers to alter and report their practices.  The programs require data to support the reporting of claims by farmers to receive the incentives.  That data is made more efficient to collect and organize by ADAPT and its framework for interoperability of farming operations.

  • Integrating Sustainability calculations into the farmer's FMIS makes it easier
    • The farmer is already inputting most of the data into the FMIS to run their day-to-day business. Incorporating 

Conclusions

• Matching abstract:

  By leveraging both the Field to Market API and ADAPT (which FMIS companies have multiple motivations to integrate with), farm management information systems can scalably provide growers with a user-friendly framework to rapidly evaluate and improve the sustainability of their operations.

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References

Code of Federal Regulations Title 7–Agriculture, Part 3103--Definitions. Available at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2010-title7/pdf/USCODE-2010-title7-chap64-subchapI-sec3103.pdf, Accessed June 8, 2017.

Crotti, Nancy (2015) How Big Ag is Becoming More Sustainable. Twin Cities Business, November 25, 2015. Online at http://tcbmag.com/news/articles/2015/how-big-ag-is-becoming-more-sustainable Accessed June 8, 2017.

FAO (2009) http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdf

General Mills (2010) General Mills announces 2015 sustainability goals; reports progress on 2010 goals. Available online at: https://www.generalmills.com/en/News/NewsReleases/Library/2010/November/2015EnvironmentalSustainabilityGoals Accessed June 8, 2017.

Levi Strauss & Co. (2015). Introducing the Levi's WellThread™ Collection. Available online at http://www.levistrauss.com/unzipped-blog/2015/10/introducing-the-levis-wellthread-collection/ Accessed June 8, 2017.

Neven, David 2014. Neven, David. Developing Sustainable Food Value Chains: Guiding Principles. FAO. Available at http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3953e.pdf   

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2014 David Neven “Developing Sustainable Food Value Chains: Guiding Principles”

PepsiCo, 2015. Performance with Purpose - 2025 Agenda. Sustainability Report 2015. Available online at http://www.pepsico.com/docs/album/sustainability-reporting/pepsico_sustainability_report_2015_and_-2025_agenda.pdf Accessed June 8, 2017.

Renewable Choice Energy, 2009. Ready for the Walmart Sustainability Index? Available at http://www.renewablechoice.com/blog-walmart-sustainability-index-update-waddoups-092409/ Accessed June 8, 2017.

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