Ep. 16: Introducing the PSA Program with Grant Morris

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 (00:29):

This is John Mesko and welcome to the Resource Positive Agriculture Podcast. Today’s discussion is going to be a good one. We actually have two guests with me today, all three of us talking a little bit about the PSA program and things that we’re going to be rolling out here this fall. With me is Natalie Nesburg, who is our program manager. Welcome, Natalie.

 

Natalie Nesburg (00:55):

Hey, John. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to talk about our program rollout.

 

John Mesko (01:00):

I am too. And for the first time ever, we are going to welcome Grant Morris. Grant is a potato farmer from Washington. And Grant, thank you for taking some time to join us on the podcast, and maybe you can share a little bit about your farm that you’re working on there, and some of the things you’re doing off the farm in the potato industry.

 

Grant Morris (01:21):

Yeah. Thanks, John and Natalie. My name is Grant Morris. I’m with Schneider Farms here in Pasco, Washington. We are processed potato growers. We’ve done a little bit of fresh specialty in the past, but currently, all process. We grow some rotation crops, peas, sweetcorn, grass seed, alfalfa, really don’t focus on rotation, but a little bit here and there. I’m currently the chair of the Washington State Potato Commission, and I’m on the board of directors for the National Potato Council.

 

John Mesko (01:52):

Well, thank you again for joining us Grant. Some of the things that you’re doing really are interesting. One of the things you didn’t mention in your intro is you’ve been very available and present at a lot of the PSA meetings in the past, been to a couple of the symposia. You’ve really been a contributor to some of the things we’ve been working on related to our program, and I wanted to just get a feel for your interest in sustainability and in PSA, and how that plays out for you, not only on your farm, but in some of these other activities that you’re working on.

 

Grant Morris (02:30):

So I’d say, at the most basic level, it’s just, as a grower, I want input. I think we all feel sometimes that we’re told, “This is what you’re going to do and this is why you’re going to do it,” and I’m always a believer of, if that’s the way it’s going to be, I want as much input into it as I can. It doesn’t always turn out the way I want it to be, or growers want it to be, or any one group in a group like that. That’s my motivation is get in there and give my viewpoint, and I think there’s probably sometimes where it’s just my viewpoint, I think there’s other times where maybe it’s the grower’s viewpoint. So I try to contribute in that way, I try to give my viewpoint, I try to, when people ask, “Hey, what do you think?” And want some involvement, I feel a little responsible, as a grower and as a commissioner on the Potato Commission representing growers here, I feel the responsibility to get involved and do that stuff.

 

(03:30):

So I enjoy it, I think it’s an important thing. I wish more people would get more involved on this stuff. It allows you to go from just complaining about something to having maybe some constructive criticism on things, or be a positive in a group like that. And I think when you don’t involve yourself enough, that’s the way it comes off, at least to a lot of people, and sometimes that’s all it is, you’re just going in there and complaining. So I feel a little bit of a responsibility to contribute in that way.

 

John Mesko (04:03):

Well, I think it’s really important, Grant. We didn’t talk about getting into this as we prepared for this recording, but I’ve been working with farmers, and I’ve been a farmer, and have been involved in conversations like what you’re talking about for many, many years, over 30 years, and in every issue, every discussion involving agriculture, food production, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a room full of, “experts,” and there’s no farmers. It happens all the time, and I’m sure you’re aware of it as well.

 

(04:42):

And I feel like part of it is, I think, farmers are busy. The farmers are focused on farming and being in the field and all those good things. But also, I think it’s easy for, I’d say agricultural support professionals, I don’t know, it’s easy for them to live in a bubble and to think that what they’re doing is isolated and important, and really maybe a farmer isn’t going to have a whole lot of input on that. And so, I think one of the things that you’ve demonstrated is your willingness to have input and to have a say in it, and that’s really critical, because it reminds all of us in the ag support community that farmers have an important role to play in all these discussions.

 

Grant Morris (05:35):

Right, yeah. And a lot of the groups involved in PSA, outside of the growers, the people in that rumor, that’s their job. Sustainability is their job within that company, that is their role, that is their full-time focus. And you mentioned it there, growers are busy. We got some busy times of the year, and our slow times of the year sometimes may be normal for other industries. So it’s not that growers aren’t interested, there’s fierce interest in this type of stuff from every grower, but not everyone has the opportunity at home, the way they’re set up, the people they have on the farm, the size of their farm, to be able to contribute and participate in the way some others can.

 

(06:22):

But even those of us that are a little more fortunate in those areas and are able to contribute and travel and do this stuff, it’s still really hard. We’re running a full-time business at home, and then to go do this away from that, we don’t just take time away from the farm, the farm stuff still gets done when we come home from these things and these meetings and the time we take off to be involved, that just takes away from our personal time at home. I know that happens with every business, everybody has that to some degree, but a lot of our stuff isn’t something, “Oh, we’ll just do that next week,” it’s really hard to involve yourself and still get stuff done.

 

(07:09):

So anybody, even a company, a big large multinational company, that’s involved in PSA, that maybe have somebody that that’s their job, I know it’s a little bit the same as the growers, I’m sure they still have work at home and office work and travel and everything else, but it’s just a little different for the growers, I think. I think we could probably do a better job encouraging growers to be part of this, but it’s a difficult conversation to have with somebody that doesn’t have a replacement at home to backfill, or that’s not growing a crop that doesn’t really care if you’re gone or not. It’s a struggle, it’s hard to get growers involved.

 

John Mesko (07:55):

Yep, you’re right. And the crop production year, as you said, waits for no one. There are deadlines that are imposed that we don’t have control over, in terms of planting and harvest and all those sorts of things. But one of the things, and Natalie and I have talked about this quite a bit on this podcast, is we call this the Resource Positive Agriculture Podcast, and really, the genesis of that term, or the beginning of that name, really comes from this notion that there’s so many different types of agriculture, and I put that in quotes, that are being promoted. There’s sustainable agriculture. This podcast is brought to us, put forward, by the Potato Sustainability Alliance, so we’re focused on sustainable potato production. There’s climate smart agriculture, there’s regenerative agriculture, there are all these terms that people like to use to describe their little corner of agriculture.

 

(08:58):

One of the reasons we have settled on calling this, “Resource Positive” is because it’s really much more broad than just the soil or just the crop. It involves all the resources that go into, in this case, producing potatoes, or any ag crop, including the human resources, including the people and their knowledge, and to your point, Grant, their input that is available. We want that to be seen in a positive light, we want that to be made available. And that’s one of the reasons why, at PSA, we’ve really tried our best to be as collaborative and as inclusive of grower opinions and availability as possible.

 

(09:47):

One of the things that really is important in that is having folks like you being willing to step up to, as you say, travel, but also just being on this podcast, so thank you so much for joining us today. One of the things that I wanted to get into a little bit was some of the things that we’re doing to enhance the PSA sustainability program. Natalie is overseeing this program that is about to launch here soon. Natalie, maybe you can give us a brief overview of some of the timeline for the rollout over the next few weeks and months. And then, Grant, I’d like to hear from you about your experience with PSA, and what you see as some of the positives or some of the challenges as we move into this new program. So Natalie, why don’t you help us review where things are going in the next little bit?

 

Natalie Nesburg (10:54):

Yeah, happy to. So we have been working pretty diligently to get all of the resources together and training necessary for launching our program, and we have a program launch date of August 1st. And so, what that program launch is going to look like is, we’re going to have a dedicated program page on our website that walks through our program framework, key focus areas, and commitments to sustainability. We will be implementing the SOA standard in the Cropwise Sustainability app, as our self-assessment performance tool to measure on-farm performance as it correlates to those commitments and focus areas.

 

(11:35):

And so, that is, right now, one of the biggest changes and the biggest focus for this implementation, as that’s a change to what we have done for the past seven years. We had a proprietary PSA survey, and we are replacing that with the SOA standard in the Cropwise app. So there’s a big lift ahead of us to onboard all of our growers in our community onto that process. We also are implementing a water stewardship approach into our program. We’ve had a water stewardship working group that’s been working for the past year on the best way to approach and communicate the sustainability achievements around water in our community. So we ended with the Potato Sustainability Report this fall.

 

(12:21):

And so, the main focus, as I said, was working to implement the SOA standard in the Cropwise Sustainability app. And so, the SOA standard is the Sustainable Outcomes and Agriculture standard, developed by Syngenta, that’s benchmarked to the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative’s FSA. And so, this is a change that brings additional credibility to our program in ensuring that global best practices are recognized, and it also ensures that we can meet our members’ sustainability commitments, which is currently to use a sustainability scheme that’s benchmarked to SAI’s farm sustainability assessment, and so it’s helping us meet sustainability goals downstream, as well as ensuring that those best practices are present.

 

(13:13):

And from our pilot, we discussed ways that the format of this standard and self-assessment makes it simpler for growers to use on farm in the reduced time it takes, and also how intuitive it is in giving and providing actionable insights around highlighting areas of achievement that growers are doing really well in sustainability, as well as highlighting areas for improvement to work into the farming systems in the future. So that’s a bit of an overview of the work we have ahead of us, and what we’re working to implement.

 

John Mesko (13:50):

Well, I thank you for that. And one of the things we’ve been working on for the last year and a half is really, how do we enhance and improve this program? Grant, I know that one of the things that has been a concern of farmers over the years is the number of surveys, or the amount of information they’re being asked for from processors and marketers, about how things are being done on the farm. Maybe you could share a little bit with us about your experience, in the past, of filling out surveys or taking assessments, and some of the things that you’ve learned about this new program that’s coming, and your impressions.

 

Grant Morris (14:32):

So I got to the farm in 2005, so that was two years before GAP, and that was before Sysco’s sustainability audit. A lot has changed since then, a lot. It is probably added, on my size farm, I don’t know that it’s added a full-time position, but it’s added enough work where I’ve had to hire somebody else, because I’m not able to go do the things out on the farm because of all the record keeping and compliance, on top of all the regular compliance that a farm or a business deals with. There’s a lot of stuff here.

 

(15:13):

This stuff isn’t necessarily things that we weren’t doing already, a lot of it is just documentation and doing it a certain way, even though the end result is is the same. And it was way different prior to me as well, but I’ve seen it change quite a bit in those years. It has been really nice, because early on, everybody had their own sustainability set up, GAP food safety is through you USDA, that’s always been one thing. There’s different levels of that to qualify, certain buyers want different levels, but it’s one program and everybody across the country does that.

 

(15:54):

Sustainability was not that way at first. Before PSI came around, it was a free for all, and you had Sysco, you had McDonald’s. Well, that was the best thing with this group is that, “Hey, let’s bring it all into one. Let’s bring everybody under one tent. Let’s all agree that this is the direction we’re going, we want one thing for the growers to do.” That’s great, and that’s what everybody has really focused on, I think, all these years, and it has made a huge difference to us, because we can spend the time needed to learn and to be able to comply and report with one.

 

(16:30):

It is almost impossible for the growers, for the reasons we talked about earlier, to have multiple audits. It is impossible for us, because we don’t have somebody that focuses on that. It seems simple. It seems like, “Oh yeah, you just do this, X, Y, Z, you have a protocol,” it’s not. This is a very large machine. Every farm has a lot of moving pieces, and we do not have time to both grow a crop that meets the quality standards that the public wants, and do a plethora of audit and office work and paperwork and procedures. It just doesn’t work. So we really have to have one, and that’s been the best thing with PSA over the years, and I think that’s really needs to be the main focus going forward as well as time goes on.

 

John Mesko (17:19):

And I think another concern, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on this too, it shouldn’t just be a one way street. It shouldn’t just be farmers telling us what’s going on, it should be us being able to give you information that’s helpful in your decision making and your sustainability storytelling. So what kinds of things are you looking for from this exercise? You’re sharing information about what’s happening on your farm, what kinds of things do you want to see coming back to you?

 

Grant Morris (17:53):

Yeah, I’m glad you brought that up, because I have a couple of thoughts on that. We compete for business, we have our trade secrets on our farm. We do things a certain way we think they work, we’re not telling our neighbor those. We really don’t want to tell anyone those. Nobody wants to share why they’re successful, and sustainability is one of the things that makes you successful as a business, as a farm, so to be asked all these questions and be required to give them up is a pretty scary thing for a grower, and I think there’s a lot of resistance involved in that. And it’s important, we have to be able to relay that to the end user and satisfy what they want, and we also obviously want to be sustainable from an environmental standpoint so we can continue farming forever. Food’s not going to quit, we don’t need to stop eating in the next 100 years, so that demand only goes up, but it’s really hard for us to share that information.

 

(18:58):

So most things that we give up to our customers, we do not get anything back. It’s just supply, supply, supply, and these customers aggregate it, they put it all together, they have gobs and gobs of data. I believe some of that can be used for profit for them and all the way down the chain. I think they can use that to compete with each other, and they’re using our data for that. But we are not really, as a grower, growers aren’t really allowed to use data in that way. We try to help everyone in the country to grow potatoes, so you can source potatoes anywhere you want and make a french fry. That’s the idea, and there’s validity behind that, but it’s hard for us to give up that data.

 

(19:43):

So what I feel I want in return, and I think a lot of growers are this way, we want to improve. Even if this PSA wasn’t here and we weren’t being asked all this sustainability stuff, we want to improve that aspect of our business, because that’s what allows us to farm, that’s what allows us to do what we do and continue to do what we do.

 

(20:03):

So PSA and sustainability has not created the need to do this stuff, it has always been there for eternity. Farmers have always had to be sustainable and get better as time goes on. But the things I look at, I want information back to me, because if I don’t know where I need to improve, it’s worthless. It means absolutely nothing to give that up, and it’s really hard to justify it, honestly, in my mind. An example, growing a crop. If I have a bad gravity on a potato, it’s a processing aspect, quality allows it to, it’s the amount of water in the potato or the solids in the potato. If I have a bad year on gravities, I need to know, did everybody have that? Was it just environmental? Is it nothing I could have done? Or was it just me? Because if it’s just me and I can know that, I know I need to focus on that and spend my time there and improve that specific situation.

 

(21:06):

It’s no different with sustainability. If I have an aspect of my program that is lacking, if everyone’s that way, sure, you’re never going to stop improving it, but I’m going to focus more on where I’m worse than everybody. I need to get myself up to where everyone else is, and that’s the more important thing for me, in the short term anyways. Long term, obviously everything needs to improve over time. But if I don’t have the right information back to me to say, “Hey, Grant, your water use is way too high for your output. It’s way too high relative to people in your area.” You can’t really look at that as a national thing. Water can be very specific, so maybe that’s a bad example. But even just locally, my water use is high, so I need to work on that. If I know everyone’s water use was high this year, it was 120 degrees all summer, obviously that was something that had to be done. It wasn’t wasteful, it had to be done to grow the crop. But if I’m the only one, I need to improve that.

 

(22:07):

So I think that’s what I want back as a grower, and I think a lot of growers think the same way on that. They want to be able to use the information they’re giving to the buyer to improve. We want that information to help us, and not just as a reporting, because if we’re just reporting stuff, what’s the point if we’re not able to use that to improve?

 

John Mesko (22:29):

I think those are great points. And I’ll say it, you didn’t say it, but we have not, at PSA, done a real good job of giving that information back to farmers that can help them make good decisions. We’ve been able to share some aggregate information across the whole country or across North America, but it doesn’t really help the individual farmer. And so, Natalie, I’m going to ask you, as you think about some of the changes that we’re making to the program, with the adoption of SOA and the Cropwise app, a couple of things Grant brought up, one of the things he’s concerned about, understandably, is the whole data privacy thing and his information being used individually, and then also the kinds of feedback that he’s able to get that could produce some actionable outcomes for him on the farm. What are we doing to help improve some of those outcomes?

 

Natalie Nesburg (23:29):

So I’ll start by saying, one of the additions to the information we’ll be able to provide back to growers this year is that they’ll get individual benchmark reports that outline how the production practices implemented compared to other growers in their region. And so, that is a succinct two-page report that comes out of the Cropwise Sustainability app, and it’s specific to our grower community. So any grower who completes the self-assessment for PSA and is in the same growing region as Grant, so Grant will be able to see how his production practices compare to other growers in his region so he can identify some of those changes that he was talking about, to see is it just on-farm or is this a regional trend?

 

(24:22):

And so, that’s a very exciting addition to the information that we’ve been able to provide in the past, and those reports highlight and pull insights from the self-assessment that highlight areas of achievement in sustainability in certain management areas. So example, soil health or biodiversity, it’ll pull practices that are really contributing to enhancing those areas of sustainability, and then it’ll also highlight opportunities to improve. And that compares to, again, other growers in your region. So if a majority of growers are implementing X, Y, Z practice, the system will pull that and include that in your report to let you know, “This is an option if you want to address water stewardship going forward.” So I think that’s very exciting.

 

(25:12):

And then, on the data policy, data privacy, end of things, we have a data policy that protects growers’ personal information and ensures that anything is reported in aggregate and anonymized. We have a request, and there are requests, to access some of the individual level data, but that’s information that only PSA knows, and that the grower has to consent to providing that level of information. So all of the controls for data sharing are in the growers’ hands, and we’ve intentionally built that into the app and worked with Syngenta to ensure that that functionality is in the growers’ hand and in the app. So they are the ones who select what processors and fresh marketers to share their results with, and they’ll select how they would like their results shared.

 

John Mesko (26:10):

Well, I think that’s excellent. Thank you, Natalie. Good insights and good input. I think it’s also fair to say that PSA is committed to making the enhancements that are needed. To our very first point that we were talking about, having farmers at the table, having PSA as a collaboration of the whole potato industry, so not just farmers but also processors and fresh marketers and everybody involved in potato production, at the table, to hopefully get these needs out on the table, get these important concerns that are out there so that they can be addressed, and we stand ready to continue to do that.

 

(26:51):

I will say, we don’t move as fast as maybe some people would like to see us move. We’re an alliance of competing interests, frankly. We have all of the major potato processors that obviously are in competition with each other, and we have a number of other companies that are part of our membership, all of them competing in the marketplace, but also, collaborating outside of that to try to do some of the things that we’re working on. Streamlining the data collection, making it reasonable for farmers to fill out these assessments. Also providing that information back that makes it worthwhile for a producer to engage.

 

(27:37):

While I’ve got you on the phone here, Grant, I would love to hear your thoughts about where you think sustainability is going in the future, and at the farm level, in terms of where you think the pressure is going to be coming to you to say, “We need to see sustainability gains in these areas of production or these practices.” But then, also, your thoughts in general about what kinds of things PSA can be focusing on, and other industry support organizations, to help make those kinds of requests less painful. Well, I won’t say painless.

 

Grant Morris (28:20):

I really don’t know. Sometimes it’s pretty shocking how detailed some of this stuff gets, and the level of information that you have to supply to satisfy a request or a need in the industry for sustainability. So worst case, they want to know every single thing you do on the farm, and totally take away our competitive advantage, or the years and the decades that farms that have put in to learn certain things. I think there’s people out there that that’s what they want, they want to know exactly… Not from a standpoint of doing it themselves, they don’t want to take it and go grow potatoes themselves, but they want to know every single thing you do. Logically, I can’t imagine it ever gets to that point, because I think, through groups like this, I think we can come together and push back and say, “That’s really not needed and this is what we need to do.”

 

(29:16):

But I think obviously, PSA starting to talk about water, water in the west is pretty tight, that’s no surprise anywhere. Here where I’m at, we’re about as lucky as anyone in the country for water, with our water supply coming out of Canada, the Rockies, it’s pretty secure. But you look at California and every other West Coast state or western state, it’s bad. So I think water’s a big one. I think we have the fertilizer and the crop inputs, I think we’re on top of all that pretty well, and I think things are being done there to improve as much as we can. A lot of that’s out of our hands. There’s only so many places you can get nitrogen in the world, there’s only so many places you can get potash in the world. So I think that’s being done and is being accomplished, but water’s probably the next thing, I think.

 

(30:14):

As far as help from other organizations, I think obviously PSA’s the body that handles all this and brings all the information in and designs these questions and facilitates the go-between the grower and their customers or their customer’s customers. But there’s state and local organizations of potatoes, like Washington State Potato Commission in my state, and the National Potato Council, Potatoes USA, there’s a lot of education that can probably happen, through those organizations, to help growers understand not only what… The what is the easy part, “You have to do this, you have to do X, Y, and Z,” but I think there could be some opportunities for education for why. And beyond the customer wants it, but really why, why does the customer want it? Why does their customer want it? Where are we at in the world right now, politically or environmentally or whatever, why are we having to do this stuff?

 

(31:18):

And I think a lot of times, that’s missing, and it creates some pushback from growers, because not everyone understands why we’re doing this or the need for it. And everybody loves to say, “Well, we’ve been farming here for 100 years, we’re sustainable.” Well, you are right. You couldn’t do it for 100 years if you weren’t sustainable, but we have to tell that story to them. We have to be able to convey that, because until you do, you’re not sustainable, which is a little bit of a phony concept.

 

(31:46):

I think we can educate the public better too, going the other way, and explain some of these things that we’re doing and why we’re doing them, instead of just giving them exactly the information they think they want. We should do a little bit better about educating them as to, “This is what you really want. We understand your end goal here. This information you’re asking is not going to get you there, or you may think it is, but this is why it’s not.” I think we just need better education in both directions, both from PSA, our customers, our grower organizations, industry groups. Everybody needs to do a better job of talking about that and making sure everybody understands what we’re doing.

 

(32:28):

Water’s the big one, I think, it’s either too much or too little. There’s not a lot of places that have just the right amount. It’s an issue either way. Endangered species, that’s, every year, bigger, bigger, with all those lawsuits in the EPA right now and the troubles they’re in, I think that probably comes into play at some point, having to talk about that issue and what we’re doing. I know that we do that a little bit now, but I’d say those two are the two that pop in my mind the quickest.

 

John Mesko (32:58):

I agree with what you’re saying, Grant, and I find this really an interesting conversation, because as I referenced earlier, I’ve had the real pleasure and joy to work with farmers all over the United States and Canada for many, many years. I have yet to meet a farmer who is trying to do harm to the environment or to the natural world in any way. Most farmers, all farmers that I’ve met, want things to be better. Most farmers are leaving the farm business or the land or the community that they live in, to their children or to the next generation, and just like all of us, most farmers want to have that in as good or better condition than when they started working on it. So I think part of it is education, as you said.

 

(33:50):

We do have, in many cases, where non-farming people have been led to believe, or have been influenced to think, that farming and farmers are purposefully doing things as a result of, “big business” or whatever that is harmful to the environment. And I don’t think anybody ever intends that. I think what really, you touched on it, is we have information, and we take that information and we want to tell a story. We want to tell a story to consumers, to investors, to the non-farming public, that sustainability is making farms better, making them more productive and less impactful on the environment at the same time.

 

(34:39):

And that’s a combination of new practices, that’s a combination of new technology, that’s a combination of new varieties, in the case of potatoes, that have different characteristics, in terms of water use and nutrient use and those sorts of things. But it’s a holistic approach. Nobody’s out there trying to spend extra money on their fuel to spend extra tillage passes across the field, everybody would like to minimize that. And to your point, I think it’s really helpful to make sure people understand that no one’s out there trying to do damage.

 

Grant Morris (35:15):

Right, yeah. That’s exactly right. I don’t know a single grower that looks at two options as, “This one’s worse, this one’s harder on the environment, we’re going to use that.” It’s a crazy thing. I do not believe the majority of people feel that way, but there’s a vocal minority that does. And that’s what drives a lot of things in this country, really worldwide, is the vocal minority, and sustainability is no different. I think the average person, if you ask them, “Do you care about sustainability?” Everybody, of course, everybody’s going to say, “Yes, absolutely we do,” but that’s the end of it. When it comes down to two on a shelf, one’s more expensive because you’ve gone through this process, they’re going to just pick the cheaper one. There’s other more important factors.

 

(36:08):

Now, that’s not to say that we shouldn’t be caring about sustainability, I’m not saying that. Again, we as growers, as an industry, forget what the public wants for a minute. We want to be better at this stuff, we want to improve. We want to be able to do this in 100 years, 1,000 years. We want to hand it down to our kids, we want to be in better shape. But it’s that vocal minority in all these issues that we really have to cater to, and I think part of that is the education side.

 

(36:43):

We use the term, “tell our story” a lot, and I’ve gotten to hate it, because we can tell our story until we’re blue in the face. If people aren’t listening, it means nothing. So we have to get people to want to hear our story, that’s the struggle. We can put all this data together, we can put all these metrics and these aggregates and kick it out there and it looks great, but if somebody doesn’t want to hear that, they’re not going to hear it. We can supply them every piece of data in the world, if they’re in that small group where the farmers or industry is just out to get us and they’re trying to get away with stuff, there’s probably nothing we can do to satisfy that.

 

(37:27):

So I feel sometimes, we focus a little bit on those minorities, not just in sustainability, all of life. It’s the loud ones that get the attention, and I think we got to reassess some of this sometimes, and back off and say, “Is that really the group that we can do anything about? No matter what we give them, they’re not going to be satisfied. We need to focus on the mass.” And I think that to get that, we got to educate everybody. And I think the people that are willing to listen and have an open mind and want to understand, I think we can do something with those guys, and I think we can supply them really good information, and we can grow together, and we can use their input and our input and we come up with something really good. But it’s a hard situation, it’s a tough deal for everybody involved.

 

John Mesko (38:15):

Well, the good news is, potatoes have a great story to tell, there’s a lot of really good things. I’ve said this many times on this podcast, I say it when I have an opportunity to speak to growers in different parts of the country, potatoes have a really good story to tell. There’s a lot of good things going on. Potato farms are unique in a lot of ways from the rest of agriculture, and those that I’ve met are all doing a great job at trying to improve in these important areas like water and nutrients and soil health and these sorts of things.

 

(38:49):

So Grant, thank you so much for what you do on your farm, for what you do in the industry, for the many different things that you’re involved in, and for your support and your involvement in PSA. It’s been great to learn about you and your farming operation, and have your input in our conversations.

 

Grant Morris (39:09):

Yeah, I appreciate it. And I’m really thankful to you guys that you give myself and people like me the opportunity to get involved, and not only do you give the opportunity, but you encourage it, so that’s not always the way it is, and I think I’d say keep it up, because I appreciate everything you guys are doing and the direction we’re trying to get to down the road. Yeah, I really appreciate it, thank you.

 

John Mesko (39:36):

Well, and thank you for that. And Natalie, thank you for the work that you’re doing to put this program together, as we go forward, that is going to meet some of the needs that we’ve been talking about here today, and hopefully support growers as they seek to improve, and also to tell that sustainability story.

 

Natalie Nesburg (39:55):

Yeah, thanks. I’ve really enjoyed being part of this conversation, listening to Grant’s points about what he’s looking for in the future. And again, this is our first year launching all of these new additions to our program, so I’m very much looking forward to feedback from growers on how we can continue to improve and provide them with valuable insights for their farm.

 

John Mesko (40:16):

That’s right. Thank you everybody for listening to our podcast today. I hope that you learned a little bit about what we’re doing at PSA, and our impact on farms and farmers throughout the country. Thank you again to my guests, Grant and Natalie, and this is the Resource Positive Agriculture Podcast.

 

Voiceover (40:40):

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.