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PUT three good minds together and ask questions about agricultural sustainability, and the conversation goes pretty much all over the platform, which is what happened at a "debate" on sustainability two weeks ago in Lexington, Ky.
The conclusion one could draw is that agriculture does practice sustainability, that where it can improve its sustainability it will and that science and technology are the tools of sustainability. In between, though, was a collection of thoughts that demonstrated the pulls and tugs that go into the concept's definition.
The panelists were Michael Boehlje, distinguished professor in the department of agricultural economics at Purdue University; Lutz Goedde, deputy director for agriculture development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Philip Wilkinson, managing director of the 2 Sisters Food Group, a food production company that's the largest chicken producer in the U.K.
The discussion was part of the 25th annual Alltech International Animal Health & Nutrition Symposium.
Starting point
The discussion started with Alltech vice president Aidan Connolly reporting results from a pre-symposium survey of 618 agribusiness executives from 63 countries that found that 64% of the executives perceive agricultural sustainability to mean "staying in business" and 62% perceive it as meaning "being environmentally friendly."
Connolly asked the panelists for their reaction, and the debate was started.
Goedde noted that 1 billion people in the world live on $1 per day and another 2.5 billion people live on $2 per day and have "very few necessities," including education for their children and food sufficiency, so sustainability could be defined as a right to economic and social stability as well as environmental stability.
However, without food security, "there is nowhere to start," he said, reporting that the world needs to double its food output by 2025 and suggesting that stock markets must focus on fertilizer, seed and food company stocks so agriculture can be successful.
Wilkinson said yields and production must be maximized without compromising animal welfare or the environment.
Boehlje said consumers will have "the ultimate voice" in defining sustainability.
He took exception with the number of business executives who saw sustainability in terms of business survivability and especially U.S. executives who, when asked in the survey to name the most pressing sustainability issue, said consumers and media need to be better informed and that government regulations may put livestock and poultry operations out of business.
"I'm disappointed in the U.S. responses," Boehlje said. "Consumers define sustainability far more broadly."
Connolly asked for the panel's list of limiting issues. Boehlje led off suggesting that "the most serious issue is water" and said there will be "significant pressure" related to the availability of quality and quantity of water.
He also said innovation and technology -- "or the lack thereof" -- to increase productivity in response to increased demand for food also are serious issues, and innovation and technology may be restrained by a lack of resources and poor public policy.
Wilkinson also called for the development and employment of technology, pointing to how a hectare that feeds two people today will need to feed five people in 2025.
More production will be needed from the same or less land, he said, and "we need to get past the dinosaur mentality in the European Union" that holds back technology.
Box of tools
Connolly asked if the media thinks intensive production is sustainable, to which Wilkinson related the extent to which a celebrity chef in the U.K. has used his British restaurant and television program to condemn house confinement of chickens and promote free-range production.
Wilkinson said the chef's campaign fails to recognize that the U.K. has insufficient land to grow all of the chickens produced there in free-range systems.
However, he said agriculture is its "own worst enemy" because it does not engage its critics or explain the animal welfare and sustainability aspects of its production systems to the media, customers and consumers.
Boehlje agreed, saying, "We need to engage, not resist," and "the old practice of not participating" in public discussion of business practices "is out."
He warned that agriculture needs to especially talk with young people because "our children do not believe intensive agriculture and sustainability are compatible."
Connolly raised the issues of famine and obesity, and Goedde said the issue is one of hunger and malnutrition in that people are either not getting enough calories every day or are getting enough calories but the wrong kind. Diets need to be balanced and include protein, he said.
Boehlje said the food industry recognizes that obesity is a problem it needs to address because consumers "eat in such a way that they create serious health and economic problems." He said food producers are challenged to make food more healthful.
Connolly asked if biodiversity in an era of genetic modification is important, and Boehlje said this is more a matter of risk mitigation.
"We don't want to throw out the tools, but we do need to manage risk" that the tools present, he said.
Goedde said genetic modification will help make progress in increasing productivity. "We should use all of the tools in the toolbox," he said.
Connolly turned the discussion to labels, especially natural and organic, and Boehlje said consumers initially responded to organically produced food by paying premiums that covered the additional costs of producing those foods, but the development of large-scale organic farms and now the economic crisis has pushed organic pricing back to where the label does not command the premium it once did.
Wilkinson said consumers need to be cautious in their embrace of special labels, explaining, for instance, that "Scottish Smoked Salmon" is salmon that was smoked in Scotland but could have been captured anywhere in the world.
"A lot of (food producers) are stealing premiums with bogus claims," he said.
Goedde noted that local, organic and other specialty foods are often produced at the expense of productivity.
Condition of business
Connolly reported that 82% of respondents to the survey said profitability and sustainability are compatible, but 67% said increasing sustainability will add costs and lower profits. He also said 33% said they believe profitability and sustainability will grow at about the same rate, and 47% said as long as sustainability does not reduce profits, sustainability will increase at a faster rate.
Returning to the label question, Connolly asked the panel if consumers will pay a premium for sustainability labels.
Wilkinson said yes, "but only as far as the purse can go."
However, he said conventionally produced food such as the chicken his company produces also is a high-welfare, sustainable food. "The problem is that we hide behind the facts" and don't talk about how "we are feeding a nation with high-welfare, sustainable food."
Boehlje said "the typical consumer won't pay much" for such labels.
Connolly asked if companies can afford corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies, and Boehlje said while the "current economy is slowing down" CRS development, in the longer term, "companies know they need to operate this way."
Furthermore, the supply chain is demanding this, he added, pointing to how Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has advised its suppliers that it wants carbon footprint documentation for its products by 2014. He said Monsanto Co. is running notices about its sustainability on National Public Radio, and that's "a signal that (CSR) is now front and center."
Wilkinson agreed, saying CSR "is a condition of doing business, of having a business."
Connolly asked if food producers should engage non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the sustainability issue, and Goedde said NGOs "fall everywhere on the bell curve," and food producers "should reach out to the NGO partners they can work with."
"Everyone has her or his definition of sustainability," Boehlje said, "and if we don't engage now, we won't have a role in the definition."
Wilkinson said that would be good advice. "Take a deep breath, bite your lip and engage with them," he said.
When Connolly asked for take-home messages, Goedde said he would "appeal to you to give science and technology a critical role in sustainability in the future. If you do that, you'll be able to take your business around the world, and you'll be able to help farmers around the world."
Boehlje called for innovation and said innovation will generate more opportunities "to feed the world and keep it sustainable.
The challenge, he said, is that there's a tendency "to think about industrial agriculture -- about precision agriculture -- at one end of the spectrum and sustainability at the other, but innovation-driven production is sustainable. Precision agriculture and sustainability are not necessarily at conflict."
Wilkinson said agriculture has made such tremendous advancements in productivity and is producing affordable, high-quality food in a socially responsible way.
"We need to be proud of what we do, and what we do is sustainable, ... so let's be passionate about what we do and defend that against those who would destroy it," he concluded. | 
