Sustainability in ag requires collaboration and investment

Animal agriculture is part of the solution to the common problem of climate change. However, without representation in the global conversation, and investment in promising technologies, it cannot affect change.

As part of the Poultry Sustainability & Welfare Summit in Atlanta, United States Farmers and Ranchers in Action (USFRA) CEO Erin Fitzgerald spoke about the challenges and opportunities of sustainability. She appeared on October 19, 2022, at the conference. It was presented by the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry & Eggs and the International Poultry Welfare Alliance.

Fitzgerald leads the organization representing U.S. farmers with a common vision to further global sustainable food systems.

She spoke about how her organization successfully lobbied the United Nations for farmer representation at the 2022 U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2022 and further talks. Before the USFRA and its allies intervened, the U.N. did not officially consider crop or animal agriculture in its long-term sustainability planning.

Animal agriculture played a key role in human history yet its becoming vilified today. Consumers, separated further than food production than ever before, want to know what they eat comes from. In an era of declining trust in institutions, people trust farmers more than anyone else.

Collaboration

Fitzgerald said the entire agriculture sector must work together to lift up the industry. She cited Decade of Ag as an example. It’s a coalition of 160 farming, ranching and food organizations pledged to build a resilient future for agriculture. Organizations like Decade of Ag help show the power of agriculture.

Investment

For animal agriculture in the U.S., there’s much to be proud of in terms of sustainability. The poultry industry, in particular, reduced its carbon footprint significantly in the past half century.

Much of that progress is owed to once experimental technology which is now standard in the U.S. and around the industrialized world. However, without investment great ideas gather dust on the drawing board.

Without financial partnership, the world’s agriculture industry can’t deploy the amazing technology that can be part of the solution to climate change.