Wal-Mart pushes plan to reduce fertilizer
Program would cut back water pollution
Retail giant Wal-Mart could hold a key to cutting water pollution while making agriculture production more efficient in a plan conservationists and agricultural groups tout as a “win-win.”
Wal-Mart said in the fall it would require suppliers of crops, including corn, wheat and soy, to develop fertilizer-optimization plans. Participants include Cargill and Kellogg ’s. Wal-Mart said it hopes to reduce fertilizer — one of the biggest sources of pollution in lakes and rivers — on 14 million acres of farmland by 2020.
Over-fertilization is blamed for water-quality problems across the country. Last month, the International Joint Commission — a U.S. and Canadian group that oversees shared water bodies — issued a report calling for reductions in phosphorous used in fertilizers around Lake Erie. Ohio lawmakers are debating a bill to require establishment of a fertilizer-certification program.
“This is significant ... Wal-Mart is a player throughout the world,” said Lisa Richardson, executive director of the South Dakota Corn Growers Association.
At first, farmers were hesitant because they have had little interaction with retailers, said Brittni Furrow, a director of sustainability at Wal-Mart. But its low-cost operating model is one farmers can relate to, she said.
Developing a fertilizer-optimization plan involves soil testing, said the American Society of Agronomy’s Luther Smith. Soil tests tell a farmer the right time, location, quantity and type of fertilizer to apply. “If they use that precision technique, it has the ability to make the farmer more precise, more accurate,” he said.
Suzy Friedman, sustainable agriculture director for the Environmental Defense Fund, said Wal-Mart’s decision offers a market solution. “Farmers talk a lot about how they want the market to drive demand for what and how they produce. I think this is the first time this is going to happen in a big way.”