Agricultural sustainability standard pilot launches in Australia

A universal agricultural sustainability standard will be run as a pilot program in Australia. It has been developed by Leading Harvest, a non-profit group hoping to reduce inefficiencies in the sustainable production of food.

The group’s Farmland Management Standard has been developed as a standardised framework that offers useful sustainability outcomes for farmers and producers and also assurance for consumers about the sustainability practices being used for their food. There are currently hundreds of different sustainability standards and Leading Harvest hopes that its offering will streamline the process of sustainable food production.

The standard aims to achieve 13 principles, including sustainable agriculture, conservation of biodiversity and protection of special sites.

The program has been trialled previously in the US, where a 20-month proof of concept was run across 526,000 hectares that included 90 different crop types. The pilot in Australia has already been signed onto by farms representing over 400,000 hectares of land.

“There is a pressing need in Australia’s agriculture industry for a standardised, sector-wide certification for sustainability,” said Kenny Fahey, Leading Harvest’s President and CEO.

“The launch of our Australian pilot program is an exciting step forward for Australia’s agricultural industry, and will show that a harmonised, third-party audited approach to sustainability can unlock more value for the farming community.

“We are thrilled to work with partners and complementary initiatives in Australia to make sustainability reporting more efficient and scalable for farmers, landowners and managers.”

The pilot program is expected to wrap up in around eight months, after which point Leading Harvest hopes to officially launch the standard for widespread adoption by farmers and growers.