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Center for Global Food Issues to Preview Earth Friendly, Farm Friendly Program
CGFI - October 29, 2003
Earth Friendly, Farm Friendly Seal Offers Farmers and Consumers More Choices
(Chicago, 29 October 2003) The Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues (CGFI) will preview its new "Earth Friendly/Farm Friendly" Seal of Approval project to the food and dairy industry this week at the Worldwide Food Expo in Chicago. A farm and environment friendly seal of approval offered as an alternative to organic and other production-related niche marketing, the CGFI seal will assure consumers that products bearing the seal are produced in a manner consistent with the best available scientific, health, environmental and quality standards and technologies. Designed in conjunction with independent academic, consumer and farm policy and practice experts, the program will certify farm and process management practices that are verifiable as both farm and environmentally friendly. The certification program is based on the adoption of environmentally sound and economically sustainable practices.
"Unlike other certification programs that limit and restrict a farmer's choices and significantly increase consumer costs, "Earth Friendly/Farm Friendly" offers farmers more choices that do not add significant costs for consumers," said Alex Avery, Director of research at CGFI. "The program is intended to provide farmers with information and tools to produce more food per acre, leaving more room for nature, using techniques and practices which have been scientifically proven and endorsed by experts."
The "Earth Friendly/Farm Friendly" concept grew out of CGFI's High Yield Conservation Campaign. This campaign, launched in Spring 2001, was created to educate farmers, policy makers and the public about the need to grow more food per acre using high yielding techniques, in order to leave more room for nature and conserve precious natural resources. Supporters of that campaign include Nobel Prize Laureate and Green Revolution leader Dr. Norman Borlaug; Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore; World Conservation Trust president Eugene Lapointe; Nobel Laureate Oscar Arias; World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Anderson; and former US Senators George McGovern and Rudy Boschwitz.
CGFI is launching this program with a pilot project in the dairy industry and is currently soliciting producers, processors and retailers interested in providing their customers with this Earth Friendly/Farm Friendly marketing tool. During the first year of the pilot, CGFI will work with dairy producers, processors, retailers and consumers to formalize standards and create consumer awareness that will provide real value to farmers, consumers and the environment. An advisory panel, comprised of academic experts, public policy, industry and consumer representatives will review feedback at the end of this pilot to ensure the ongoing value and credibility of the seal of approval.
"We are currently consulting with the US Department of Agriculture to include our certification plan and the elements required of dairy producers in the USDA's Agricultural Process Verification Program," said advisory panel member Graydon Forrer, former director of consumer affairs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "CGFI wants to provide farmers with the best high yield conservation practices and provide retailers and consumers with useful information about dairy products and dairy production practices."
The Earth Friendly/Farm Friendly Seal of Approval is being shown at the World Food Expo in Chicago, which runs from Wednesday October 29th until Saturday, November 1st. For more information about the program, visit Booth S8672 bordering the Beverage Expo Zone, or online at www.cgfi.org.
The Center for Global Food Issues is a project of the Hudson Institute, a tax-exempt non-profit public policy organization, providing factual, science-based information on important food and farming issues.
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