Potato Grower

92 POTATO GROWER | JANUARY 2018 Diggin' In Diggin' In Diggin' In Diggin' In Diggin' In Diggin' In SUSTAINABILITY| By Trimble Ag Business Solutions Team Maintaining soil health while growing high-disturbance crops Acing the Test Potato growers are on the front lines of sustainability initiatives sweeping across mainstream agriculture today. Driven by heightened consumer demand for more information about how their food is produced, key players up and down the supply chain are adapting to sustainability requirements that are now a cost of doing business. While complying with the new audits required under the Potato Sustainability Initiative (PSI) are costing growers time and resources, the effort is paying off—for the environment, for consumers and for growers' bottom lines. Mike Wind has been out of school for a while, but that doesn't mean he's forgotten the pressure to produce a passing grade. In fact, this Taber, Alberta-area grower was one of the first to undergo new sustainability audits being rolled out for potato producers across North America. Windiana Farms, which grows 850 acres of potatoes on its 3,500-acre operation, passed with flying colors. "We did very well," says Wind. "It was lengthy and detailed. These guys are tough—if you can't prove you're actually doing what you say you're doing, you flunk." The pass/fail audit, which took about four hours to complete on Wind's farm, measures specific sustainability outcomes such as pesticide use, greenhouse gas reduction, nitrogen use efficiency, waste management and water conservation. Wind, who is one of the grower representatives on the PSI North America board, says the audits are not just good for consumers and the food processors governed by sustainability goals, they're also good for farmers. "A lot of the things on the checklist are things we have always done; we've just never put pencil and paper to it," says Wind. "At the end of the day, I think we will not only be better growers, we'll also know what we're good at and what we need to work on. We'll have not only a sustainable operation, but one that will be in much better shape when it comes to passing it along to the next generation." Wind says tracking data is becoming a larger part of his farming operation; he employs someone full-time to handle reporting requirements for PSI, CanadaGAP and other food safety programs. "Agriculture could do a better job of showing consumers that we're just as concerned about food safety as you are," says Wind, Alberta grower Mike Wind fi rmly believes sustainability audits are not just good for consumers and processors, but that they help growers as well

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