The demand for organic grains is growing. Aroostook County, Maine is a region that could help to meet this gap in supply, but organic grain farming as a standalone business is not profitable in Aroostook County, at the scale that most grain farms currently operate at. Mixing other, more profitable crops into a rotation with…
DetailsThe path to expanding organic grain acreage in Maine and New Brunswick is not clearly marked. The primary reason is that the market does not generate the profits necessary to entice producers to plant significant new ground in an organic production system, or transition from conventional to organic, when evaluating grain enterprises. However, based on…
DetailsBuilding high performing and resilient sectors requires looking beyond the value chain and improving the governance of a sector. The last two decades have seen an increasing emphasis on company and supply chain driven approaches to promote sustainable production and trade of agricultural commodities such as cocoa, coffee, cotton and staple crops. Some of these…
DetailsSmallholder farmers around the globe are facing unstable productivity due to changing climate and weather patterns. The ways in which the private sector supports these farmers to build resilience to climate change and/or engage in efforts to mitigate climate change can have significant impact on the ability for farmers to make a living, the security…
DetailsDon Seville, Co-director of the Sustainable Food Lab, and Jan Gilhuis, Senior Program Manager in the IDH Fresh & Ingredients Program, discuss the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative. Hear about the motivation behind setting up the initiative, gain insight into the activities carried out with private and public partners, and learn why investing in sustainable livelihoods for…
DetailsThe Sustainable Food Lab and Business Fights Poverty have been collaborating to advance learning on how to improve the economic benefits of trade with smallholder farmers. Growth in those farmers’ incomes is fundamental to economic and social development, to farmers’ ability to reinvest in their farms and to the sustainable supply of crops bought by…
DetailsMillions of smallholders live in poverty, unable to meet basic needs. Smallholder farmers need to improve their incomes and competitiveness if they are to achieve and sustain a decent standard of living, reinvest in their farms, and continue to supply a sustainable crop to multinational companies. The business benefits of investing in smallholder supply chains…
DetailsAddressing malnutrition in value chains can be good for business: it can contribute to higher productivity and contribute to the integrity of brands. But, when and how to measure ‘nutrition’ can be complex and what can be done is not always straightforward. Join us for an introduction by the Sustainable Food Lab (www.sustainablefood.org), and presentations by Bärbel Weiligmann and Christina Nyhus Dhillon, nutritionist…
DetailsThe booming organic industry continues to be a bright spot for growth in the US farm economy averaging double-digit growth over the last five years. While the organic industry thrives, acres used for organic production in the US are not growing fast enough to keep up and hover around 2% of total US agriculture with…
DetailsDespite the title, this blog is not about sex, unless we consider the teeming reproductive activity of billions of micro-organisms in every tablespoon of fertile soil. I’m writing for those who wonder how important soil health is. Over the years, advocates for sustainable agriculture have promoted the importance of many different goals: fewer pesticides, less…
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