Last week, Field to Market (FTM) held its June Plenary and General Assembly meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition to being the first in-person plenary held since June 2019, this was the first meeting led by Field to Market’s new president, Scott Herndon, who was appointed in January of this year.
The meeting kicked off with thought-provoking considerations surrounding expanding and exploring research areas. That theme continued throughout the course of the meeting as members discussed possible R & D opportunities to better understand the roles supply chain actors play in supporting the adoption and retention of practices that support sustainable outcomes from U.S. commodity crop production used for our food, feed, fiber and fuel.
Wednesday afternoon’s agenda included a panel presentation focused on the GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals Guidance draft that will be released in late July. The guidance will explain how companies should account for emissions and removals from land use, land-use change, biogenic products, technological CO2 removals and related activities in GHG inventories, building on the Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Standard.
The plenary meeting concluded on Thursday with a look at the potential benefits of third-party GHG tracking and verification; next, post-lunch collaboration continued with a cross-sector dialogue, “What Lies Beyond: Landscape Approaches to Sustainability.” The small group breakouts brought stakeholders together to learn more about community-based approaches to sustainable agriculture—from farmer-led watershed initiatives to regional supply chain collaborations.
“This week’s meetings reinstated the importance of collaboration to achieve success in driving sustainable improvement,” said Nebraska grower and Field to Market Chair Brandon Hunnicutt. “It is really important for us to find tangible ways to measure our successes in conservation and stewardship.”
Field to Market members can expect plenary recap documents to be shared in July.
