LEVERKUSEN, GER - In the wake of sustainability concerns and initiatives, Bayer’s Jennifer Maloney and Kevin Adam recently took the time to discuss with me how the company’s newly-launched Grow On program helps growers communicate all they do to uphold their roles as stewards of the land.

“One of the things I kept hearing from growers was that they were constantly getting questions from consumers, retailers, and operators about their sustainability practices,” Jennifer shares with me, explaining that in her role as Food Chain Sustainability Manager she is focused on helping retailers, growers, and operators understand the impacts of current and rising consumer trends. One of those pressing movements is the curiosity of what providers are doing to care for and sustain the environment.

“Whether it’s environmental, social, or economic sustainability, it is advantageous for growers to communicate what they are doing to be sustainable,” Jennifer adds.

As a result, Bayer has created this multi-faceted program to not only help the growers to communicate any and all moves they are making to interested parties, be it retailers, foodservice operators, or the consumer, but to help in those sustainability movements.

The Grow On initiative looks to provide growers with tools to identify, implement, and communicate sustainable farming practices. This can include citrus, grape, pome and stonefruit, potato, tree nut, and the initiative provides vegetable growers with the resources needed to continue to sustainably produce safe, nutritious food for the growing global population, Bayer said in its initial press release.

It can also improve shelf-life and help to mitigate food waste by helping tackle issues in the field for specific products.

“For instance in cherries,” Kevin, who serves as Bayer's Horticulture Marketing Lead for North America, shares with me. “If you do a good job of controlling the diseases before they are actually harvested and maybe shipped overseas in export market you can reduce their loss or shrinkage, improving the amount of food that’s able to move to the consumer and they are able to consume.” He continued, “For the domestic market, it improves the amount of time they can store it when they get home.”

Bayer has done studies that show its practices in disease prevention can improve shelf-life by applying its solution package, prolonging freshness by anywhere from 5 to 15 days depending on the product.

A win-win for the grower and the buyer.

The company broke down areas in which it could help tackle sustainability issues, coming up with the following regimen:

• Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices to manage pests with minimal environmental impact
• Optimizing plant water usage and water quality
• Improving soil health and plant nutrient uptake
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fuel use
• Ensuring safe work environments
• Reducing food waste by preventing pre-harvest loss and extending post-harvest shelf-life

“Growers use our products to help them be even more sustainable in these areas, so it became this sustainability tool for growers to use to meet their different messaging needs,” Jennifer concludes.

And with the majority of food waste occurring either at the beginning of the supply chain’s battles with Mother Nature like fruit drop, mold, or disease, or on the consumer end, these moves are key to helping ensure that the investment in each fruit and vegetable brings more return.

To learn more about the Grow On initiative, click here.

Bayer North America