Field to Market Honorees Exemplify Ambition of Sustainable Development Goals

Farming/Growing, Florida, Infrastructure, International, Ohio, Opinions, Policy, Sustainability

October 10, 2019

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(Solutions from the Land) National Farmer’s Day, an acknowledgement of the hard work that goes into feeding and supplying a nation, will be observed this Saturday, Oct. 12. The day acknowledges and thanks farmers for the hard work they do every day to supply safe and abundant food, feed, fiber and fuel for our nation.

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The SDGs, which are interdependent, cannot be fully achieved without sustainably managed agricultural landscapes. These require collaboration among diverse stakeholders at every scale, from global conversations like the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) to SfL’s extensive work at the state level.

SfL’s guiding Pathways Report and recent projects in Ohio and Florida have focused on engaging producers directly to better understand both the challenges they face in a changing climate, and the tools they are developing to overcome them through adaptation, resilience and mitigation. They provide roadmaps to what farmers like those spotlighted by F2M need at the state and national level to reach the global milestones that the SDGs prescribe.

The report “Ohio Smart Agriculture: Solutions from the Land – A Call to Action for Ohio’s Food System and Agricultural Economy” describes the result of this multi-stakeholder process in the Buckeye State. The four initiatives identified by the farmer-led Steering Committee are to: make Ohio agriculture and the food system a public policy priority; diversify and sustainably intensify the production of food, feed, fiber and fuel; use institutional buying power to ramp up demand for “Ohio Smart Food,” and implement landscape-scale, climate-smart agriculture strategies to ensure sustainability and decrease agricultural runoff. To accomplish these initiatives, 50 pathways to transform Ohio’s food economy by 2050 were also identified.

Goals like “harmonize tax incentives to protect working lands” and “develop a brand and recognition for Ohio farm products of all kinds, including ecosystems services” are consistent with the farmer needs identified by SfL’s Pathways Report: harmonization of conflicting policy frameworks, public/private sector partnerships to accomplish these goals, and perhaps most importantly, enabling policies and market mechanisms that recognize and reward the delivery of environmental solutions from the land.

Through an SfL-facilitated dialogue, Florida’s agricultural leaders are even now sharing ideas with policy makers and stepping forward to lead the discussion on proposals to help keep their operations sustainable, productive and economically viable; all while providing food, feed, fuel and fiber, as well as landscape benefits such as carbon sequestration, water filtration and biodiversity. READ MORE

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