Ep. 15: Highlights from the 2023 PSA Summer Symposium

Voiceover (00:06):

Resource Positive Agriculture describes what we all want, a food and farming system, which makes full and responsible use of the natural world. In this podcast, I’ll explore how agriculture can be a force for good on everything from the environment to people and our society.

John Mesko (00:32):

This is John Mesko, and I am the host of the Resource Positive Agriculture podcast. I’ve got with me today Natalie Nesburg, who’s our data specialist at the Potato Sustainability Alliance. Welcome, Natalie.

Natalie Nesburg (00:46):

Hi, John. I’m happy to be here.

John Mesko (00:49):

Today we’re going to share with the listeners a recap of what happened at the 2023 PSA Summer Symposium, which was held June 20 through 22. But also hope that this podcast will be something that future attendees or people who are considering attending future symposia can listen to and learn about what is this symposium and what happens and what the purpose is and that whole sort of thing.

(01:22):

One of the things that was new this year was a new location. Natalie, we were in Houston at the Sysco headquarters. Tell me, what did you think of Houston? It was my first time.

Natalie Nesburg (01:34):

Yeah, it was my first time in Houston as well. Sysco had great facilities for us to host our large group, and then also a lot of breakout groups and breakout meeting rooms that were ideal for networking. But it was very hot and humid, I think every time I stepped outside my glasses fogged up.

John Mesko (01:54):

Yeah, it was almost like coming inside in the wintertime from the cold. But I agree, it was a great venue. We were welcomed with open arms. Sysco was a Platinum level sponsor for us in terms of donating the space, as well as food and drinks for our breaks, which was fantastic. We had other sponsors, Simplot and McCain Foods were also Platinum level sponsors. 1, 4Group was Gold level. National Potato Council and YARA were Silver level, and we had a host of other Bronze and Partner-level sponsors.

(02:34):

And it was really that sponsorship picture, Natalie, is kind of a good way to think about how we work as an alliance. We are not a typical conference, the Summer Symposium. It really opens up how PSA as an organization and how the symposium as an event works. We are an alliance, and that was brought up quite a bit during the symposium, how we operate. We have three big buckets of work that happen at a symposium. We have working groups, where some of our stakeholders, the attendees and people who are there, board members, PSA members, companies and individuals who are considering becoming members of PSA. Everybody’s invited to join various working groups, and we had several different working group sessions there.

(03:35):

We had of course sector breakouts, where we had each of our sectors, whether that be processors or fresh marketers, buyers, whatnot, separate out as sectors and work together on issues and learnings related to PSA that they can share or that they can express interests or needs. We had several sessions about water management and water stewardship, a new program element that we’re developing. I led a session on business strategy, where we talked about PSA’s business as an organization. Not a lot of focus on actual sustainability in that discussion, but just how do we work, how do we remain relevant and capable of serving our audience into the future? And then, Natalie, you led a discussion on data policy.

Natalie Nesburg (04:31):

Yeah, so the data policy discussion was coming out of a lot of our program evolution that’s happened over the past few years. Mainly this past year where we had a review of our proprietary PSA Survey and compared it to other existing market tools that could help us meet our sustainability goals. Mainly looking for benchmarked alignment to the sustainable agriculture initiatives, Farm Sustainability Assessment, so FSA, and we had a very thorough review process this past year of the Sustainable Outcomes in Agriculture Standard and the Cropwise Sustainability app. And our board this past April voted to replace our survey with that new tool, along with other frameworks and sustainability commitments that our board has adopted has called for a review of our data policy.

(05:28):

So it was a really good discussion looking at how our data policy is framed and how we can still ensure and work to maintain confidentiality, as well as ownership of data for growers who are submitting their on-farm data for us to help communicate the sustainability story of all of the great practices that they’re doing. As well as up the supply chain to help meet the sustainability goals of our processors, fresh marketers and buyers. So it was a really good discussion and it also helped identify areas of questions that still need to be answered and clarified with this new transition. But we did get to cover that in the symposium as well.

John Mesko (06:11):

Yeah, I think it was a great opportunity for us, again, to work together as an alliance. Coming to a summer symposium is not a series of lectures that the audience sits in and listens to. There is some of that. Certainly, there are sessions where the primary focus is to teach or to share what one of our members or what the organization itself is doing or learning or advancing. But a good bit of our time is spent in working sessions, as we just described. And part of that out of those working sessions, as you just described, comes recommendations, suggestions, and things that the group learns about by hearing from the constituents or the stakeholders.

(06:59):

You had a great example of that in your data policy discussion in the business strategy session that I led, which was at the same time as yours. We learned a lot of things. The executive committee had met previously and came up with some suggestions of things that we wanted to do and some recommendations. And when we took it to that group, several of those recommendations, the group had a lot of very, very helpful insights, very helpful understandings about what aspects of those recommendations are approachable and would work and what aspects may not work. And so really allowed the executive committee to revise some of those things. And then when it came to the board meeting on Thursday, those revisions were further refined in some cases, in other cases, they were adopted and passed by board votes and so forth.

(07:54):

But as a result of this kind of broad scale working group setup within the symposium, as you described, the program discussion around the Sustainable Outcomes in Agriculture and how we were changing the way we collect information, some of the discussions around water stewardship piece in the sector breakouts, all of this led us to further develop and establish more working groups that will meet between now and then between the symposium and the next board meeting, which is in November of 2023. These groups included a data policy review committee, a bylaw review committee, a membership sector committee discussion, and the use of our logo. We want to make sure that the PSA logo has value and is available to be used by our members.

(08:53):

So this is really a key part of the symposium. And I thought this was a very interesting and exciting group, with lots of good feedback.

Natalie Nesburg (09:05):

And I will say, one of my favorite parts was the sector breakouts, because I think it’s very interesting hearing the takeaways from each sector, what they are looking to focus on, what questions they have for our board, what they’re looking to bring to their board representatives to have reflected in the notes and in the direction as we move forward. And so as you said, we see that with our new working groups that were established, but the sector breakout discussions are really pivotal in how we move forward and how we collaborate to move forward.

John Mesko (09:43):

Absolutely. And there’s so much that we can learn from each other, and I think that was really, really well reflected in the sector breakouts.

(09:54):

Another big section or another big component of the summer symposium is learning from others. Working together is kind of a working session, but then, as a lot of conferences are, where there’s an audience and there’s people learning. And in this year’s symposium, we had a few examples of that. Our keynote speaker, Debbie Lyons-Blythe, who is the Chair of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, an organization that’s a little bit similar to PSA, maybe a little bit further down the road in their development of sustainability programming as it relates to the beef industry in the United States. Debbie gave us a great kickoff. She got us started on the right foot with her perspective as a producer who is heavily involved in an industry-wide effort to promote and quantify and share the sustainability story out there in the marketplace.

Natalie Nesburg (11:01):

Yeah. I really enjoyed Debbie’s keynote, and I think it was very clear, the parallels between the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and also what we’re looking to do at PSA in terms of working with the whole supply chain to collaborate on making sustainability work for the growers, and then also downstream to make sure it meets the sustainability goals of our members.

(11:27):

So I think Debbie’s talk really highlighted how the grower’s voice can be engaged further in the conversation. And that’s something that we are constantly working to do, but I think it helps set the stage for really good discussions in networking and communicating about all of the program changes and adoptions we were going to cover throughout the rest of that day as well.

John Mesko (11:51):

Yeah, I thought it was great, a great start to our day. We also heard from the folks at Sysco, who have just named a new vice president of sustainability. And so he was there and was able to share with us their vision, but also their view of PSA, which was really encouraging. I believe that he referred to us as the best in class when it comes to industry sustainability organizations. I was pleasantly surprised.

Natalie Nesburg (12:21):

Yeah, that was a nice comment.

John Mesko (12:22):

And it was great to have lots of people from Sysco there, not just Shane Samples, who’s our representative on our board from Sysco, but he brought quite a few people into that first day’s meeting to familiarize them with the work that we do and familiarize us with the kinds of resources and effort going on at Sysco, which I learned a lot in those sessions.

Natalie Nesburg (12:53):

Yeah. And I think there were a couple of examples where our contacts that we typically work within our member organizations brought their colleagues. And so it was really interesting getting to know more of the workforce behind how our program is being adapted by our members and how it’s being used and talked about is very interesting. Getting to learn more and getting to know more people who are involved.

John Mesko (13:23):

I agree. I think the member organizations that brought multiple people to the symposium really were able to add and I think benefit from having those folks there. We also heard from a panel of buyers, including Sysco and McDonald’s. We heard from a panel of fresh marketers. Peak of the Market was in there, Sysco also was in there, and The Little Potato Company, all sharing with us kind of the things that they’re learning and also their needs. Where are the future needs in sustainability?

(14:08):

For example, in the fresh market, we learned about the importance of eventually having some kind of recognition, a logo or a sticker, or some kind of mark that fresh marketers can put on their potatoes, saying, these are sourced from a sustainably-sourced process or farming practices, or however we decide to present that. We learned of the value of that, which I think was really helpful. And it’s important that we hear from different components of our membership so they can share with others what’s going on in the marketplace.

Natalie Nesburg (14:51):

Yeah, one of the great things that came out of the fresh market discussion, and I think also it was touched on in our keynote speaker and some of the buyer and the grower breakout session as well, was talking about uniting around one sustainability program for sustainability reporting for growers to make it easier. So we do have members that are each at a different place in their sustainability journey and how they have sustainability goals that they’re looking to meet.

(15:17):

So working with our program to make sure we’re able to meet all of those goals, while still providing an easy on-ramp for growers that reduces their reporting burden, was a big takeaway. I know Sysco highlighted their sustainability options for their growers, and one of them was the PSA program in acknowledging that as a credible way to report on-farm sustainability data that meet their goals as well, which I think was huge.

John Mesko (15:53):

Yeah. And those are learnings that are very difficult to share in an online or virtual setting. Having everyone together where those conversations can take place is key. Another key component of the symposium is the ability for networking to take place. And networking can be structured, it can be direct or indirect. And we had plenty of opportunities at our breaks. We had opportunities at dinner and had a couple of really nice meals out in Houston. One night we broke up into groups and went to different restaurants. The next night we ate at the hotel that we stayed in there, the Embassy Suites. Both really excellent opportunities to learn in a casual setting, a less formal environment, and what’s going on with other members.

(16:44):

But, Natalie, you had a big contribution to this whole networking and kind of fun aspect of the symposium. And tell us about the PSA Sustainability Bingo.

Natalie Nesburg (16:56):

I would love to. I had a fun idea, and I’m glad that we were able to see it through, where it was an engagement activity for day two of our symposium, and it was Sustainability Bingo. So in your traditional Bingo grid was a list of sustainability terms that we’re all familiar with hearing and we all work with on a daily basis.

(17:23):

And so it was a list of terms that I knew would come up throughout the day that we randomized in this grid, and then we offered some prizes for the Bingo winners who got five in a row. And those prizes were herbal tea blends that I designed around designated pollinator habitats. So we had one called Pollinators Delight that had linden tree, calendula, cornflower, and lavender. And then we had a First Day of Summer blend, because it was the first day of summer. And so that one was more refreshing with chamomile, lemongrass, spearmint, and, again, cornflower for the purple color.

John Mesko (18:06):

It was a great addition I think to the symposium. I think it did a couple of things. And I’m sure part of this was your intent, that it caused people to pay attention or give them a reason to pay attention. But it also was fun and it was also a way to tie in an interest that you have and the importance of pollinators and biodiversity to sustainability in a way that was fun and engaging. So I really appreciate you doing that, and I think everyone else really enjoyed it as well.

Natalie Nesburg (18:43):

And I had a lot of fun. I think it helped a lot with networking and it opened the door for a lot of conversations that I don’t think would’ve been as easy to have in talking to other people who also have bees or what’s in their pollinator habitats, talking about some of the medicinal benefits of some of the plants that exist. So got very herbalist, but it was very fun.

John Mesko (19:09):

That’s right, Natalie. And you know, that is kind of where we’re at with the symposium. We’re doing as much as we can to bring a full picture together of how we work as an organization, and the needs that we have as an industry to improve our sustainability reporting and storytelling, which is a real key component of what we’re going to be working on in the next year. A year from now we will have much more information to share with folks, we’ll have much better storytelling resources, and we’ll have a better understanding of what our ability to tell stories is and what our needs are for telling future stories.

(19:56):

And the key thing, or when we think about having future symposia, leveraging our members and having them rotate as hosts is a really important feature of what we’re doing in these events. And so it’s very exciting to let folks know that next year’s, 2024 PSA Summer Symposium is going to be held at the McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago, and it’s going to be July 9 through 11. 2024, July 9 through 11 in Chicago. So I’m hopeful that when we have this podcast promoted as an opportunity for people to learn about and understand what happens at a symposium, they’ll be getting themselves ready to head to Chicago in July. And I’m really looking forward to that.

Natalie Nesburg (20:53):

Yeah, I’m looking forward to our next event in Chicago. I think it’ll be really interesting and really fun to see McDonald’s venue and what their meeting rooms are like and get to know more staff there that we can work with.

John Mesko (21:11):

Yep, I agree. And looking forward to it. I hope that folks that listen to this are appreciative of being able to learn about what happens at a symposium. PSA is and will continue to be an alliance that relies on its members to learn about and share with each other, work together to evolve and develop the program that meets the needs of the potato industry, share and learns with each other, and continues to network and collaborate for potato sustainability.

(21:44):

So thanks, Natalie. I appreciate you joining me on the podcast today and appreciate all your work as always, and looking forward to another successful event in Chicago.

Natalie Nesburg (21:55):

Yeah. Thanks, John.

John Mesko (21:56):

And this is John Mesko with the Resource Positive Agriculture podcast. And don’t forget to stay positive.

Voiceover (22:11):

Thanks for tuning into today’s episode. To hear more podcasts like this, please rate, review and subscribe to Resource Positive Agriculture. We want to hear from you. Remember to visit potatosustainability.org for show notes from this episode, leave your feedback, and to learn more about how PSA is collaborating for potato sustainability. Thank you, and remember, stay positive.