Production Agriculture Withdraws From Sustainability Standards
26 October 2010 Agricultural representatives withdrew en masse today from the Leonardo Academy’s sustainable agriculture standard setting initiative, citing systemic limitations and chronic anti-agriculture biases inherent in the writing Committee structure set up for this initiative. A letter addressed to Michael Arny, Leonardo Academy president, was signed by ten national agricultural-organization voting members on the nearly 60-member Committee, and endorsed by 46 other agricultural organizations nationwide. The Leonardo Academy and its principal financial sponsor, Scientific Certification Systems, had undertaken an effort in 2007 to develop a draft national standard for sustainable agriculture under a consensus-based process governed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
“This decision was not made easily,” said Ron Moore, American Soybean Association and Acting Chair of the Leonardo Academy’s standard Committee, “for it means walking away from nearly two years of investment in active Leonardo Committee membership, Subcommittee leadership, and writing group participation.
“However,” Moore continued in a press release, “farmers will embrace a standard for sustainability only if they are allowed fair representation in its development. Unfortunately, mainstream agriculture has been given a decidedly minor voice in a Leonardo Academy process dominated by others. We will pursue, in another venue, the development and implementation of a valid approach to agricultural sustainability.”
“Despite Leonardo’s claim that the committee is made up of members from ‘across all areas of agriculture,’ in reality the committee is dominated by environmental groups, certification consultants, agro-ecology and organic farming proponents,” said Russell Williams, American Farm Bureau Federation. “Based on their recent actions, it is apparent that these groups have neither the vision nor desire to speak for mainstream agriculture or the 95 percent of farmers who will be materially affected by any resulting standard.”
The withdrawal of modern agricultural representatives from the Leonardo Academy’s sustainability initiative is an indication of their lack of confidence in its process, not a lack of commitment to agricultural sustainability, according to the withdrawing groups. Over 900 million people worldwide suffer from malnutrition today, so having a global sustainable supply of food is of prime importance. U.S. agriculture is committed to the pursuit of a valid approach to sustainability, but in another venue.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Standard process is now progressing from principle development to content development, according to the Leonardo Academy. The new content being developed by the Subcommittees will be reviewed by the Sustainable Agriculture Standards Committee at its next meeting, hosted by the GAP in the San Francisco Bay Area Jan. 13-14, 2010. All interested parties are invited to submit applications to participate in the upcoming Subcommittee conference calls and to attend the Standards Committee meeting. New officers for the Standards Committee will be announced next week, as well as new Committee openings, and interested parties are encouraged to apply.
Leonardo Academy’s American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved standard development process provides the balance needed across all interest categories for successfully developing a national Sustainable Agriculture Standard. This balance is accomplished through these four ANSI-approved interest categories of Producers, Users, Environmentalists and General Interest.
Michael Arny, president of Leonardo Academy, addressed the resignation of 11 committee members on Monday by saying: “I am personally saddened by these resignations. The Leonardo Academy standards development staff and I have enjoyed working with these individuals and their participating organizations over the past two years. I will personally thank all of those who have resigned for their service on the Sustainable Agriculture Standards Committee and let them know that they are welcome to rejoin this process in the future.”
The press release issued by Leonardo Academy continued: Reasoning given by the individuals resigning was that they believe there is an inappropriate balance of membership on the Standards Committee. Leonardo Academy’s response is that we recognize their perspective but we disagree with their assessment. As noted above: Leonardo Academy’s American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved standard development process provides the balance across interest categories needed for developing a Sustainable Agriculture Standard that will be widely implemented and successful in the marketplace.
The Sustainable Agriculture Standard developed through the Leonardo Academy process will reduce the pressures for the proliferation of purchasing company-specific and interest-group-specific sustainability standards, purchasing requirements and information.
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