Apr 15, 2022
Editor’s Note: As correctly put by this article, the general public has started to see CEA as one of the keys to solving major issues that have worldwide impacts. But, in order to truly tackle the major environmental, social, and justice-related food concerns out there, this industry needs to be more sustainable, and needs to communicate about sustainability with backed-up data. We need to hold operators accountable for their sustainability claims and demand data from their own operations to back these up. Agritecture has released a CEA Sustainability Communications Guide to help you more effectively interpret and communicate about sustainability-related claims in the CEA industry.
CONTENT SOURCED FROM THE GREENHOUSE GROWER
Written By Janeen Wright
Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) has a reputation. The term is bandied about more these days in association with sustainability, feeding the growing world population, water and energy conservation, and more. All these things have become more important to consumers and investors alike. CEA, for the most part, has a positive reputation garnering a lot of attention right now. In our industry, we know all about controlled-environment growing. One would assume we fall into the CEA category. But is this assumption correct, and if it isn’t, what are the ramifications?
Al Zylstra, Manager of DRAMMWater, gave a presentation at Greenhouse Grower’s 2021 GROW Executive Summit in December on strategic water management over the next 10 years. One point he made really stands out to me.
“Whether you are growing tomatoes, cucumbers, bedding plants, or whatever it is, if your customer knows you are a sustainability-friendly person or operation, they are more likely to buy your product. One of the things we should be doing is promoting the fact that we are controlled-environment agriculture,” he said. “That name is being taken over by the vertical farming industry. We shouldn’t let that happen. We should be taking that name on as greenhouse operations, as well.”
People have started to see CEA as one of the keys to solving major issues that have worldwide impacts. If we want to keep people thinking we are essential, what better way to do that than to make sure we are seen as part of the CEA community? More than that, let’s back up all the good things we are doing with solid facts. For instance, Zylstra pointed out in his talk that when you look at the fact that 70% of all our freshwater resources globally are used for agriculture, that is primarily for raising beef, cattle, livestock, and field crops. Our industry is a very small part of that percentage.
The reality is most greenhouse growers use very little water for irrigation. Do your customers know that? Can you give them a figure for how many gallons of irrigation water you save every year by recycling your water? What about sharing a video on your website about the efforts you make to recycle water or minimize nutrients from going down the drain and contaminating water sources?
If you aren’t tracking this type of information and making it available to the public, maybe you should be. On the reverse side, if you can’t back up your claims with irrefutable facts, don’t share anything until you can. There is a phenomenon known as greenwashing that could irreversibly tarnish the reputation of the CEA sector, according to the 2021 Global CEA Census Report put out by Agritecture Consulting and the New Zealand ag software company WayBeyond. Greenwashing is the marketing ploys of companies that mislead the public on their environmental and sustainability credentials to improve their reputation and appeal. These dishonest companies have an environmentally friendly face that runs only skin deep. Scrutinize them closely and you find they are doing very little or next to nothing to minimize their environmental impact.
George Washington once said, “Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.” Let’s associate ourselves with a CEA community that grows responsibly, cares about the environment, and produces good quality products. Our industry can already boast that we have growers of that caliber. We can only be seen as an asset to all the positive developments occurring right now in CEA. Happy growing!
