Demographic changes in the marketplace and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns make it imperative that farmers -- and the dealers who supply them -- embrace a sustainable approach to farming, a former General Mills executive told an audience of several hundred at the Agricultural Retailers Association annual conference last week in Palm Desert, California.

 

“These millennials and consumer groups want to know two things: where is their food coming from and how it's grown from the beginning,” said Steve Peterson, who retired from GM in August after serving as its director of Sourcing and Sustainability. He is chairman through the end of the year of Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, and runs Peterson Farms, a grain and livestock operation in Paynesville, Minnesota.

 

 “Where you guys sit, I call it a fulcrum - right between the consumer and the producer. We need you to help make (sustainability) work.”

 

Click Here to read more.