Strong participation continues, with more than 75 people from North America and from as far away as Israel attending the mid-July event in Chicago at the McDonald’s headquarters reports John Mesko, executive director, Potato Sustainability Alliance. Topics included:

• Regenerative Agriculture and its relationship to sustainable potato production
• Soil health in potatoes
• Insights from the 2023 PSA assessment data
• Sector breakouts
• Cool Farm Tool options for growers within the PSA program
• Tools for all PSA members on how to leverage PSA data in telling sustainability stories
• Overview of the PSA Water Stewardship Framework
• Biodiversity and Pollinators

• Updates on the PSA program for 2025

   

The Water Stewardship Framework focuses on what growers can control, which is executing on-farm management practices that support positive water quantity and quality outcomes and reporting on those practices. Through a full-farm approach and considering all crops in rotation on a farm, the Framework enables the inclusion of all stakeholders in the agri-food value chain to understand local shared water challenges and provides collective action opportunities that go beyond the reach of individual members in their watershed and value chain.

In addition to many networking opportunities, this year’s attendees were also treated to a tour of McDonald’s Headquarters and “Hamburger University” training center! 

“The most insightful parts of the symposium were the panel discussions on how the different factors of the supply chain approach sustainability. I found Kendra Levine of McDonald's to be refreshingly transparent on how such a big corporation handles sustainability reporting and disclosure to its stakeholders.”

Stay tuned for the dates and location for the 2025 Symposium.

Source:  Potato Sustainability Alliance July 18, 2024 newsletter