Sustainable Practices Make Cents For Iowa Farmers

 

 

 

 

When farmers talk sustainability, conversations tend to center on long-term benefits, like how farming practices will increase yields and future income. Or how they may reduce waste and sustain land to provide a legacy for future generations.

 

However, for 42 farmers in Iowa, the sustainability payout is more immediate.

Last year, this group received a 10-cent premium per bushel from ADM for acres enrolled in the ADM/Unilever Soybean Sustainability Program. The program was developed to provide the food maker with information it could use to reassure consumers about the quality and sustainability of soybean oil in the Hellmann’s Mayonnaise it produces.

 

Iowa was chosen for the pilot program because of the proximity between the ADM processing plant in Des Moines and the Unilever plant in Chicago. As members in Field to Market: the Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, ADM, Unilever and the United Soybean Board are advancing solutions for sustainability and continuous improvement in U.S. commodity agriculture.

 

Farmers enrolled in the program entered their crop-management information in the Fieldprint® Calculator, a tool developed by Field to Market. ADM provided additional in-person support to help record data. This provided feedback on the farms’ impact on natural resources like soil and water. The information helps Unilever verify that farmers maintain management records and are addressing concerns like water quality, soil erosion and wildlife habitat.

 

Grinnell, Iowa soybean farmer Greg Van Dyke says the program was very easy and provides additional benefits.

 

“The ADM people were extremely helpful,” he says. “They came to our farm and helped map out our profile in about a half-hour. Using the calculator, we sent in our information and they compiled it into reports. At the end of the first year, we were able to see our individual numbers and got to compare them to averages of farms in our area.”

 

“Unilever and ADM also shared feedback on how we compared to farms in other countries like Brazil and Argentina,” Van Dyke said.

 

The Fieldprint Calculator keeps individual farm data anonymous. It scrubs all identifiers and allows only participating producers to view the performance of anonymized operations side-by-side, so they can compare themselves against others in the county. Nobody sees farmer-specific data.

 

“One of the things that appealed to us was the confidentiality of the program,” Van Dyke says. “All of our private information was kept private. And no one is looking over your shoulder. You just report information once a year. You can even deliver to local approved co-ops.”

 

In return for the information, farmers are able to earn a premium on their soybeans and learn best practices that can help maintain and improve sustainability.

 

Unilever is also pleased by the success of the program. Images of sustainably sourced soybeans are already being prominently displayed in Hellmann’s television commercials. And consumers appear to be eating it up. Last month, the company reported Unilever’s “sustainable living brands” — brands that Unilever says contribute to environmental and social sustainability — accounted for half the company’s growth in 2014 and grew at twice the rate of the rest of its business.

 

“It’s all about continuous improvement,” says Stefani Grant, Senior Manager, state external affairs and sustainability at Unilever. “The program has been very successful, and we have a lot of momentum behind it. We’re currently working on similar programs for soybean ingredients used in other Unilever products, with farmers and processors in other states. That will be announced soon.”