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On-Farm Sustainability and Food Safety Align

globalgapSAI Platform and GLOBALG.A.P. offer new solution

SAI Platform’s Farm Sustainability Assessment program (FSA) and GLOBALG.A.P. are today announcing a new solution in response to global industry needs. By answering just a few additional FSA-inspired questions, farmers using GLOBALG.A.P. can achieve industry-wide sustainability recognition. This full integration of FSA and GLOBALG.A.P. certification is an important step forward for food supply chains around the world.

With one audit, farms can demonstrate GLOBALG.A.P. compliance and up to the highest level of FSA equivalence, while integrating food safety and sustainability in one on-farm approach.

Buyers that want to make sustainability claims about their produce can require the growers in their supply chains to complete the FSA ‘add-on’. The add-on ensures that a range of additional on-farm environmental best-practice is delivered, including responsible management of water and protecting and encouraging biodiversity.

Companies wanting to make FSA claims, are also seeing the business benefits due to its promise to be simple. GLOBALG.A.P. auditors are enabled to check the additional FSA questions at the same time as the standard GLOBALG.A.P. audit. This combined one-stop audit drives a more efficient supply chain allowing resources to be freed up for improvement with no extra effort.

Joe Rushton, FSA Manager at SAI Platform commented on why this alliance is so important: "GLOBALG.A.P. and the FSA is a strong partnership that naturally integrates food safety and sustainability into one harmonized on-farm approach."

He added: "Our alliance also brings us ever closer to a common definition of sustainable agriculture, that farmers, food manufactures, and policy makers need."

"Having implemented GLOBALG.A.P.’s food safety and farm assurance system, I have seen how, with little additional efforts, our farmers were able to add proof for the additional sustainability points during the trial assessments of the new joint product," said Dr. Elmé Coetzer-Boersma, Vice President and Chief Standards Officer at GLOBALG.A.P. "They can now respond to the growing demand to verify on-farm sustainability and connect to more customers."

GLOBALG.A.P. and the FSA are presenting their new solution at the ANUGA trade fair in Cologne on 9 October 2017 at 4:00 pm, and report about the ongoing trials.

About the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA)

First piloted in 2014, the Farm Sustainability Assessment program (FSA) offers a simple, highly effective tool to assess, improve and communicate on-farm sustainability. Developed by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, the FSA is used in 32 countries and available in 19 languages. Its design and purpose facilitates the understanding of industry-shared better management practices that improve farm performance and sustainability outcomes. Its bronze, silver and gold performance levels are designed to be used at scale in the food supply chain and to mainstream sustainable agricultural practices. Read more at http://fsatool.com/

About the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform

Founded in 2002, the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform) provides a pre-competitive environment for the food and drinks industry to address global sustainability challenges facing farms today, and in the years ahead. With a network of over 100 members and partners spanning across 35 countries around the world, we are developing the practice of sustainable agricultural tools and principles that create secure and strong agricultural supply chains, to protect the earth’s resources. Our focus on beef, dairy, arable and vegetable, and fruit and nut as well as our pioneering benchmarking tool, the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA), lead the field to effective sustainable practices while delivering value to our members, farmers, their communities and consumers. www.saiplatform.org

About GLOBALG.A.P.

GLOBALG.A.P. is a leading global certification program whose mission is to bring farmers and retailers together to produce and market safe food in order to protect scarce resources and build a sustainable future. www.globalgap.org