The Canadian AgriFood Sustainability Initiative has taken another step with the release of an engagement report and an imminent pilot project.
CASI was launched in March 2020 and is intended to be an online hub for the many sustainability programs. Sustainability in this project includes economic, environmental and social outcomes.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is leading the effort. President Mary Robinson said consumers want assurances that producers are using sustainable practices but the challenge is to provide the evidence required by each code or program.
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Robinson said the CASI platform is an industry-wide collaboration that will share the programs in one place, making them more transparent and accessible.
She said it will reduce duplication and reporting requirements for farmers to get credit.
“CASI is really about simplifying the collective needs and being proactive in communicating agriculture’s success,” she said.
At the program launch, consultant Bronwynne Wilton, who is working on the project, told The Western Producer that CASI would help farmers measure the sustainable efforts they are taking against international standards.
“CASI is not meant to be a sticker on products at the grocery store, for example. It’s meant to provide evidence behind the scenes on what’s happening at the ground level and through the value chain, in terms of those economic, social and environmental outcomes.”
The engagement report includes the results of a survey of 129 stakeholders including producers and producer organizations, government, supply chains and “sustainability enablers” about different aspects of current programs.
Robinson said stakeholders currently have their own data collection, requirements and goals but operate separately. CASI will bring them all together and allow the industry to better communicate how its sustainability efforts are going.
CASI intends to help credit farmers for existing management practices after standards and program equivalencies are established.
As part of the process, CASI is launching its first pilot with the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. Its standard will be benchmarked against the international Sustainable Agriculture Initiative standard and another that hasn’t yet been determined.
“The work is going to kick off with a workshop in early February and that workshop is going to address the complexities of meeting global sustainability standards and why this is important for the continued success of the Canadian agrifood supply chain,” Robinson said.
The first pilot will be completed by early spring and a second pilot will follow.
Robinson added that all players in the food value chain have to participate to make the CASI hub work.
“It’s really how we’re going to identify efficiencies, opportunities, gaps, shortcomings if we all come to the table and trust each other to a certain degree to just simplify this and cut through a lot of the chase,” she said.
Stakeholders who want to participate in the workshop should contact the CFA.
