Benchrunner Relay: Sick Of Sustainability!
January 23, 2008 One Alabama grower vents to us after returning from the Gulf States Horticultural Expo (GSHE) in Mobile, Ala., last week.
Dear Benchrunner,
Please, enough with sustainability. I was at the GSHE in beautiful Mobile this past weekend, which in most people’s opinions is one of the premier shows for the Southeast now. The one topic that came up, “Sustainability.”
Most of the small- to medium-size growers feel pretty much the same as I do. Right now with the economy, drought, high fuel prices, soaring health costs and insurance, it’s not sustainability anymore, it’s “SURVIVABILITY.” How can y’all keep asking growers to spend money to just about totally revamp their operations when they are on the verge of closing or getting gobbled up by a mega grower?
I really believe you need to rethink your slogan for 2008. Y’all need to try and come up with articles to help small to medium growers get through 2008. Start pointing fingers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for allowing fuel prices to rise so high that it’s choking the life out of small farmers. Write one that tells how many growers went out of business or sold because they are tired of fighting a never-ending battle. Most row crops are subsidized. Why don’t y’all write a story about why a greenhouse operation that pays a hell of a lot more taxes ain’t?
I’d just really like to know. Who the hell came up with this word (sustainability) anyway? Had to be somebody who wears a suit, either high heels or penny loafers, and drives an SUV in the city to bolster their appearance. If they do have greenhouse experience, it was probably with a mega grower.
In honesty, I really like a good portion of the articles that Meister Media writes. In your early years, you were more for the individual grower. Now with the chant of the “S” word showing up more often in your writings, I’m beginning to wonder if y’all have forgotten us, the small to medium-size grower.
As one owner of a greenhouse operation in Mississippi put it, “The saying is true. The big just keep getting bigger.” Sustainability?! Not even a concept of happening without having the chance of survivability.
Mark Shaw
Seman Growers Inc.
Greenhouse Grower’s Editor Delilah Onofrey responds:
After we received this letter, I called Mark and we had a great discussion for about a half hour related to how growers are struggling. He and some of his peers have said they feel bad about themselves when they attend a sustainability educational session and they are not implementing practices that are espoused and are struggling to make ends meet. They feel frustrated and that they are being judged.
Related to the sustainability topic, our objectives at Greenhouse Grower are to:
- Help growers promote the good they already do
- Share success stories and solutions for those seeking improvement and new opportunities
- Make sure our growers are well informed and represented in any discussions establishing certification standards, policies and regulations
- Present the trend as an option or choice, an opportunity
- Put profitability front and center
It would be good for the industry to adopt common language or a definition of sustainability that puts profit front and center instead of a quiet assumption.
Dick Meister, our long-time editor in chief at Meister Media Worldwide, directed me to a broad definition of sustainable agriculture defined in the 1990 U.S. Farm Bill:
An integrated system of plant and animal production practices having site-specific application that will over the long term:
- Satisfy human food and fiber needs (what about flowers??!!)
- Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base
- Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate where appropriate natural biological cycles and controls
- Sustain the economic viability of farm operations (good!)
- Enhance quality of life for farmers and society as a whole
Chris Beytes and Jennifer White, my esteemed colleagues at Ball Publishing, also have come up with a succinct definition for sustainable floriculture that I like:
“Producing and selling greenhouse or field crops in a manner that provides a profit for the business, minimizes the impact upon the environment, maximizes employee well-being and benefits the community.”
Let’s continue to keep profit front and center in sustainability discussions and share results. We’re all in this together!
Want to weigh in on this topic? Drop me a line at [email protected] or give me a ring at 440-942-2000.
Subscribe to eNewsletter
