The Packer’s Sustainability Insights 2023 survey was designed to better understand growers’ involvement and market behaviors surrounding packaging, labeling, food waste, and sustainability.
The web-based quantitative survey was completed between March 20 and April 21 this year. In total, 146 owner-operator U.S. growers over 18 years old completed the survey. The survey was designed by Trust in Food — Farm Journal’s sustainable ag division — and conducted and analyzed by Farm Journal Marketing Research and Insights.
You can read all of the survey reports in the Sustainability Insights 2023 digital edition.
Taking measure
Amy Skoczlas Cole, president of Trust in Food for Farm Journal, said the survey showed growers face several environmental challenges, including a good portion who say a lack of water is impacting their business.
Growers are facing more pressure to be sustainable, not only from consumers but also policymakers, Skoczlas Cole said.
While more sustainability solutions are available, the challenge to document sustainability practices, along with the cost and affordability, add complexity for growers, she said.
Skoczlas Cole said Farm Journal’s research team at Trust in Food has several recommendations based on the survey.
“Documentation requirements will only increase — growers should go ahead and get ahead of it,” she said.
Another step that growers can take is to combat food waste within their own supply chains, a move that she said can aid in profitability as well as contribute to climate change mitigation.
While current broader climate-smart practices originated in the Midwest and may not have been built in produce-friendly ways, she said there’s big opportunity for more inroads with $18 billion in climate-smart ag dollars in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Rating sustainability’s importance
In the Sustainability Insights 2023 survey, 40% of growers indicated that sustainability was a primary priority, up from 39% in 2022.
Thirty-eight percent of growers indicated sustainability was a secondary priority, compared with 37% last year.
Thirteen percent of growers indicated sustainability was a tertiary priority, down from 15% in 2022.
Growers who responded that sustainability was “not a priority” accounted for 7% of the total, up from 4% in 2022.
Growers were asked, “How important is addressing climate change to your overall sustainability priorities?”; they were asked to rate their response on a 1 to 5 basis, with 1 being “not at all important” and 5 being “extremely important.”
Seventeen percent of growers rated climate change as extremely important, the same as 2022.
Likewise, 16% of growers said climate change was “not at all important” in their sustainability priorities, down only slightly from 17% in 2022.
Thirty percent of growers picked the midpoint score (3) when describing the importance of climate change in their sustainability priorities, up slightly from 29% in 2022.
