FARMING NOTES – FEBRUARY 2015 by Duncan Allison, President
Education of the consumer – There are plenty of signs that consumers are much more aware of the food they are eating. Ann Curman of Futures Consulting said recently at 2015 Retail BIG SHOW “Consumers are bent on maximizing their well- being and are becoming more intentional about the products they buy. Well- being is seen more by consumers as something that’s possible.” Nearly three-quarters of consumers state they want companies to do a better job explaining how their purchases impact the environment. (Cone Communications) Six out of ten millennials (19-36 year old consumers) are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. (Nielsen 2014) The food industry is already reacting. General Mills will sustainably source 100% of 10 priority ingredients by 2020 and Unilever will source 100% of their agricultural raw material by 2020. Walmart the #1 Grocery Store in the US will reduce fertilizer use on 14 million acres of U.S. farmland by 2020 and reduce and optimize the resources required to produce that food and drive more transparency in to their supply chain. These are some of the global giants taking some major steps to making sure they can satisfy their customers in the future.
More wineries in Pennsylvania – Wine consumption has been increasing at 6% per year and local wineries are looking for more grapes to enable them to meet demand. PA has 246 wineries and there are 12 recognized wine trails. Wineries and tourism are very much linked as 80-90% of their wine production is sold on site. Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board sales have also increased 26% from 2007 to 2013. Chester County and nearby counties are well positioned to take advantage of the affluent population in Philadelphia, Wilmington and their suburbs. Soil does not need to be particularly fertile but the initial cost of establishing a vineyard is significant. Growers can still sell their grapes to nearby wineries without having to invest in actual wine production. Great potential. Farming and Data – Increasingly farmers need to study data to refine their farming operations. There are programs for dairy producers to link RFID tags with milk production. Data from genomic testing assists breeding and a new program CowManager detects heat, animal activity etc. to improve fertility rate. 20% of pure bred Angus cattle were genetically tested in 2014 up from 1% in 2010. John Deere and other machinery suppliers have been collaborating with software producers so that farmers can link the GPS systems with data from harvest yields, link fertilizer rates with variations in field fertility and so on. Many if not most new tractors have a computer + GPS. The ability of farmers to track market prices for commodities has enabled more informed sales and futures contract decisions. Weather is another huge variable for farmers so companies are making efforts to provide the best and most local forecasts available. Don’t let anyone tell you that farming today is not high tech and becoming more so every day!
More biocontrols in horticulture – Mostly used in ornamental and flower markets but also by vegetable and fruit producers. Much less in field crops. Performance is reported to be as expected (40%) or better than expected (30%) and only less than 10% had worse or somewhat worse than expected. The main reason given for trying biocontrol is sustainability followed by product effectiveness, resistance management, and organic production and managing pesticide residue levels. Growers lack information on how best to use these biocontrols as very different from applying conventional pesticides. Lots of education needed to get wider use both of biocontrols (using natural enemies of the target pest) and biopesticides (pesticides derived from natural materials – plants, bacteria and minerals).The global crop protection companies have recognized their potential and are investing heavily both in research and purchasing existing companies to ensure that these environmentally favorable approaches can play an important role in their product portfolio. This will continue to be a very active development area.
Biotech crops increase globally – A record 448.5 million acres of biotech crops were grown in 2014 in 20 developing countries and 8 industrial countries. The global acreage has increased more than 100-fold since the first planting of biotech crops in 1996. Biotech crops increased production valued at $133 billion over the 1996 to 2013 period and pesticide usage decreased approximately by 500 million kg or 1.1 billion lbs. during the period 1996 to 2012. German economists have shown in a rigorous meta-analysis that GM technology reduced pesticide use 37%, increased crop yields 22% and increased farmer profits 68% during the 20 year period of 1995 to 2014. New approvals of GE crops in the US will bring direct consumer benefits – in potatoes and apples. Why the criticism?
DAA 2/18/2015