Sustainable agriculture will increase profits

Written by Stephanie Price, Journalist

Today at the Future Farm Europe 2012 conference Peter-Erik Ywema discussed the importance of implementing sustainable farming practices that will benefit investors.

The general manager of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative, whose members include Kellogg’s, Heineken, Mars and McDonalds, said there is no alternative for agriculture sustainability.

We already have evidence that we can feed more than 9 million people today, but we lose 30-50% of that food through waste in the supply system. Not wasting, not polluting and not destroying the environment are the key principles of sustainable farming.

“We have to act, and we have to act now. We all know what we are to do in essence, we understand the problems, we just have to do it,” Mr Ywema said.

“You would be a stupid farmer if you are an unsustainable farmer.”

But can farming businesses be sustainable without compromising profit? Hans Johr, Head of Sustainability at Nestle explains sustainable farming efforts have a very good return on investments.

Sustainable farming allows for guaranteed demand for the farmer, guaranteed supply for the buyer, and the consumer gets a good product, Mr Johr said.

“In the end we strongly believe sustainable farming is cheaper.”

“Our game in the investor world is that we have managed to get food safety relatively secured,” Mr Johr said.

For more information on sustainable farming visit http://www.saiplatform.org/

What are your thoughts?  When investing into agriculture is sustainability a key consideration for you?