News Type: TFI News

COVID-19 News: Fertilizer Industry Steps Forward

No matter where you live, there’s a good chance someone in your community is hungry. According to USDA, in 2019, more than 37 million people in the United States struggled with hunger.  Now, with the Coronavirus outbreak, the number of people struggling to find adequate food is growing exponentially. In recent weeks, many food banks are reporting as much as a 50 percent uptick in demand. Many fertilizer industry leaders in TFI’s membership are stepping up to the plate to help.

Mosaic: Better than a Hat Trick

The Mosaic Company recently announced that it is partnering with the Tampa Bay Lightning NHL hockey team, to donate $200,000 to Feeding Tampa Bay, which distributes food to pantries and similar services for 600,000 people in the region. It’s the latest example on a growing list of ways the company continues to support local communities during these challenging times. Prior to the NHL’s pause on the regular season, Mosaic had planned to donate $70,000. For every goal scored by a Lightning player at home, Mosaic pledged $500 and $5,000 for every Bolts hat trick on home ice. But, as the company says, “unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures,” and Mosaic’s leadership decided to more than double the donation amount to $200,000.

“Mosaic’s mission is to help the world grow the food it needs,” said President and CEO Joc O’Rourke. “At this time of critical need, we are pleased to support the many vital community food organizations associated with the Goals for Food program. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the Lightning in the years ahead.”

CHS, Inc.: Matching Employee Generosity

CHS, Inc., another industry leader, has committed $125,000 to the Greater Twin Cities United Way, local social service agencies and Feeding America to assist with COVID-19 response efforts. Donations will provide immediate support to those most vulnerable to the economic and health-related issues caused by COVID-19. CHS has committed a dollar-for-dollar match to employee and community contributions to the Greater Twin Cities United Way COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, up to $75,000. One hundred percent of the donations will go directly into the community to address critical community needs including food, shelter, childcare, sanitation and hygiene supplies for approximately 75,000 people across the region. CHS has also donated a total of $25,000 to support Neighbors, Inc. and The Open Door to ensure food is available for those in need living near our corporate office, and has pledged $25,000 to Feeding America. The Feeding America network of food banks secures and distributes 4.3 billion meals each year through food pantries and meal programs, including thousands of rural communities where CHS plays a vital role.

Stay tuned for more news on our members’ commitment to employees and neighbors. We could all use a little more good news at this time, so please share yours with us so that we can include you in upcoming blog posts about ways the industry is extending kindness to those in need.

 

Ecosystem Services Market Consortium and The Fertilizer Institute Launch Pilot

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2020 – The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) announced today at Commodity Classic plans to test improved nutrient stewardship as a means of increasing farmer profitability through the ecosystem services market being developed by the ESMC. This pilot project will test the ESMC’s protocols and data intake procedures and other program aspects while TFI will identify potential buyers for the ecosystem service impact credits generated.

The Fertilizer Institute will work with farmers enrolled in their 4R Advocate Program in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and South Dakota. TFI’s 4R Advocate Program links nutrient stewardship, including precision agriculture and variable rate application, to farm profitability and has collected production data, including fertilizer applications, from participating producers for four years.

4R Nutrient Stewardship principles incorporate the right source, right rate, right time, and right placement of fertilizer and are a proven framework that helps American farmers increase production and profitability while enhancing environmental protection and improving sustainability.

ESMC’s science-based, outcomes-based protocols and program generates credits for soil carbon (C), net GHG, water quality and water use efficiency. The collaborative effort with TFI will enable ESMC to secure producer intake data information to establish baseline attributes and to quantify impact changes over time; to capture, store and manage data required for ESMC asset generation; and to evaluate strengths and gaps in meeting corporate reporting needs and requirements for GHG and water risk, water quality, and water use efficiency.

“This pilot presents TFI and its members with an opportunity to prove the financial cost-effectiveness and environmental benefits of 4R Nutrient Stewardship principles,” said Corey Rosenbusch, TFI President and CEO. By overlaying the ESMC platform currently under development to generate ecosystem services impact credits with TFI’s existing 4R tracking of nutrient stewardship and profitability, the pilot is intended to show a significant correlation between these goals.

“This landmark-setting pilot is an example of industry collaboration coming together to resolve our thorniest environmental challenges with common sense market-based solutions to reward producers,” said Debbie Reed, Executive Director of the ESMC. ESMC is launching several more pilots this winter and spring in the Midwestern corn and soy region, focusing on row crop and grain production systems. The ESMC is building a national-scale ecosystem services market designed and conceived for the agricultural sector. It plans a 2022 full market launch of its Ecosystem Services Market. ESMC seeks to enroll 30 percent of available working lands in the top four crop regions and top four pasture regions to impact 250 million acres by 2030.

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About the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium

The Ecosystem Services Market Consortium LLC was formed in May 2019 and is a subsidiary of the Soil Health Institute. ESMC’s mission is to advance ecosystem service markets that incentivize farmers and ranchers to improve soil health systems that benefit society. ESMC LLC is a member-based organization launching a national scale ecosystem services market for agriculture to recognize and reward farmers and ranchers for their environmental services to society. ESMC members represent the spectrum of the agricultural sector supply chain with whom we are scaling sustainable agricultural sector outcomes, including increased soil carbon, reduced net greenhouse gases, and improved water quality and water use conservation. (www.ecosystemservicesmarket.org)

ESMC Founding Circle members include: ADM; Bunge; Cargill; Corteva Agriscience; Danone North America; General Mills; Land O’Lakes Inc.; McDonald’s USA; National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; Nestle; Noble Research Institute, LLC; Nutrien; The Nature Conservancy; the Soil Health Institute; and Syngenta. ESMC Legacy Partner members include: Almond Board of California; American Farm Bureau Federation; American Farmland Trust; American Soybean Association; Anuvia Plant Nutrients; Arizona State University; Arva Intelligence; Bayer; the Conservation Technology Information Center; Farm Foundation; Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture; Impact Ag Partners; K-Coe Isom; Mars, Inc.; National Association of Conservation Districts; National Cattlemen’s Beef Association; National Corn Growers Association; National Farmers Union; NativeEnergy; Newtrient, LLC; OpenTEAM; Pivot Bio; Sand County Foundation; Soil Health Partnership; The Fertilizer Institute; Tatanka Resources; the Tri-Societies; Tyson Foods and World Wildlife Fund. Partners pledge financial support and active participation to establish private ecosystem service markets for agriculture and to improve ways to measure, verify and monetize increases in soil carbon, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, improved water quality and increased water conservation. ESMC welcomes companies, nonprofit and conservation organizations and agricultural organizations as partners. 

About The Fertilizer Institute
The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) is the leading voice of the nation’s fertilizer industry. Tracing its roots back to 1883, TFI’s membership includes fertilizer producers, wholesalers, retailers, and trading firms. TFI’s full-time staff, based in Washington, D.C., serves its members through legislative, educational, technical, economic information and public communication programs. Find more information about TFI online at TFI.org.

The Fertilizer Institute Applauds USDA’s Agriculture Innovation Agenda, Seeks to Gain Government Commitment to Fund 4R-Related Research

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2020 – The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) announced its support for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Agriculture Innovation Agenda,” which the agency bills as a “solution for farmers, consumers, and the environment.” TFI will continue working with USDA to find practical solutions to increasing the adoption of 4R Nutrient Stewardship practices among farmers. 4R principles incorporate the right source, right rate, right time, and right placement of fertilizer and are a proven framework that helps American farmers increase production and profitability while enhancing environmental protection and improving sustainability.

“I applaud Secretary Perdue and the team at USDA for their commitment to sustainable agriculture, and TFI fully supports this new initiative,” said Corey Rosenbusch, TFI President and CEO. “The Fertilizer Institute has long promoted similar goals, including 4R Nutrient Stewardship, and I look forward to future cooperation with the department as we work toward advancing these shared objectives to benefit American agriculture.”

TFI and its members are committed to being part of the solution when it comes to innovation and sustainability in agriculture. TFI members are well-positioned to work with farmers in areas such as technical assistance and writing and implementing nutrient management plans based on the 4Rs. 

Through the 4R Research Fund, TFI is also committed to measuring the outcomes of 4R practices. The 4R Research Fund has led to $17.2 million in research efforts through private and public collaborations. The Agriculture Innovation Agenda presents an excellent opportunity to leverage private sector funds with public sector research dollars to quantify the environmental benefits of implementing suites of 4R practices on the farm. In fact, the 2018 Farm Bill designated 4R-based research as a high-priority research area.  

In addition, USDA’s Agriculture Innovation Agenda is based on a report by the National Academies, “Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research – 2030,” which identifies research needs compatible with the 4Rs.

Finally, improvements in data collection by USDA would enable a better understanding of how cropping system management decisions interact with environmental properties or conservation practices. The inclusion of data that focuses on management, however, could be improved to account for nutrient management strategies such as fertilizer source, rate, time, and place.

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The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) is the leading voice of the nation’s fertilizer industry. Tracing its roots back to 1883, TFI’s membership includes fertilizer producers, wholesalers, retailers, and trading firms. TFI’s full-time staff, based in Washington, D.C., serves its members through legislative, educational, technical, economic information and public communication programs. Find more information about TFI online at TFI.org.

The Fertilizer Institute’s 5th State of the Fertilizer Industry Report Highlights Improvement in Environmental Impact, Safety, and On-Farm Fertilizer Use

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2020 – The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) today released its fifth State of the Fertilizer Industry Report. The report tracks social, environmental, and economic metrics across the entire value chain to identify industry progress and mark areas for improvement. Since 2013, the industry has made significant improvements in water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and research on and adoption of 4R Nutrient Stewardship practices.

“The business community is making sustainability a priority, and the fertilizer industry is no different,” said Corey Rosenbusch, TFI President and CEO. “As TFI marks five years of collecting sustainability data, I am excited to be able to look back at the accomplishments we’ve made while also charting a path to where we want to be in the next five years and beyond.”

This year’s report includes data representing 34 companies in the manufacturing, retail, and wholesaler and distributor space. The data represents 91 percent of manufacturing capacity and 32 percent of the retail industry in the United States. Report highlights include:

  • The industry is more than twice as safe as industry peers when compared to benchmark data from the Department of Labor.
  • The fertilizer industry delivers more than $130 billion in economic impact in the United States.
  • Total energy use per nutrient ton of fertilizer produced decreased 3 percent from the prior year.
  • In 2018, the industry captured more than 4.5 times the greenhouse gas emissions that were captured in 2013. These captured emissions were then used for other industrial purposes.
  • Nitrogen producers are using half the amount of water per nutrient ton produced than they did in 2013.

The report showcases data on all segments of the fertilizer industry from fertilizer use on the farm, the impact on people and communities, energy and environment, and transportation. For the first time this year, TFI is able to report that nearly 6 million tons of recycled materials were used in the production fertilizer.

The fertilizer industry employs more than 103,000 people in the United States. To capture their work and impact, the State of the Industry Report features interviews with employees across the value chain, including those who partner with the industry on research and stewardship initiatives.

To learn more about this year’s State of the Fertilizer Industry report, visit fertilizerreport.org.

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The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) is the leading voice of the nation’s fertilizer industry. Tracing its roots back to 1883, TFI’s membership includes fertilizer producers, wholesalers, retailers, and trading firms. TFI’s full-time staff, based in Washington, D.C., serves its members through legislative, educational, technical, economic information and public communication programs. Find more information about TFI online at TFI.org.

TFI Statement on Senate Approval of USMCA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) Vice President of Stewardship and Sustainability Lara Moody today welcomed the U.S. Senate’s approval of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The historic trade agreement, once signed by President Trump, will strengthen U.S. agricultural exports and provide needed certainty to agricultural markets.

“We commend Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and members of the U.S. Senate for coming together in a bipartisan fashion to overwhelmingly approve the USMCA and we look forward to President Trump signing the deal as quickly as possible. This new agreement will provide the millions of hard-working men and women in U.S. agriculture with a huge economic win and allow them to compete on the global stage by ensuring that markets with our strongest trading partners remain open and fair,” said Moody. “Mexico and Canada are two of the United States’ biggest trading partners and together import over 60% of U.S. agricultural goods.” 

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The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) is the leading voice of the nation’s fertilizer industry. Tracing its roots back to 1883, TFI’s membership includes fertilizer producers, wholesalers, retailers and trading firms. TFI’s full-time staff, based in Washington, D.C., serves its members through legislative, educational, technical, economic information and public communication programs. Find more information about TFI online at TFI.org and follow us on Twitter at @Fertilizer_Inst. Learn more about TFI’s nutrient stewardship initiatives at nutrientstewardship.org and on Twitter at @4rnutrients.

2020 4R Advocates Showcase the Economic and Environmental Benefits of 4R Farming

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2019 – The Fertilizer Institute today revealed the 2020 4R Advocates, five farmer and retailer pairs who have teamed up to turn the 4R Nutrient Stewardship principles into practice, yielding economic and environmental benefits on their farms.

“For nine years we’ve been honoring the true champions of 4R Nutrient Stewardship – the farmers and retailers who take risks to implement innovative fertilizer management and conservation practices,” said Lara Moody, TFI Vice President for Stewardship and Sustainability. “I’m thrilled that this year we’ve added 10 more excellent advocates who have so clearly demonstrated the real-world success of the 4Rs on their farms.”

The 4R Advocate Program has recognized 90 growers and retailers, farming 215,006 acres in 22 states. The 2020 Advocates represent two new geographies – Pennsylvania and Texas – and two new crops – cotton and sugarcane. For nearly a decade, these leaders have farmed as examples by championing sound nutrient stewardship. 

The 2020 Advocates are: 

  • John Hundley and Eric Hopkins, Hundley Farms, Belle Glade, Fla.
    Tim Stein, Wedgworth’s Inc., Belle Glade, Fla.
     
  • Brian Ryberg, Ryberg Farms, Buffalo Lake, Minn.
    Mike Welter, Central Region Cooperative, Buffalo Lake, Minn.
     
  • Jeff O’Bannon, Morgan-O’Bannon Family Farm, Madison, Mo.
    Todd Ragsdale, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Paris, Mo.
     
  • Mike Kurek, Susquehanna Orchards, Delta, Pa.
    Tim Hushon, The Mill, Red Lion, Pa.
     
  • Jeremy Brown, Broadview Agriculture, Inc., Lubbock, Texas
    Taylor Allison, Eco-Drip Irrigation, Abernathy, Texas

The Advocates will be honored at an awards banquet hosted by TFI at the 2020 Commodity Classic in San Antonio, Texas, where they will also represent the 4R program during the Commodity Classic tradeshow. Throughout the year they will also be part of TFI’s outreach efforts to promote fertilizer management practices by hosting farm field days, participating in conference panels, and speaking on behalf of 4Rs to their farming peers.

The 4R Advocate program is one of many facets of a high-priority campaign to raise awareness and adoption of 4R Nutrient Stewardship practices. Fertilizer is a key component of sustainable crop production systems, and the fertilizer industry recognizes the need to efficiently utilize these nutrients. 4R Advocates and other farmers have partnered with The Fertilizer Institute to demonstrate how 4R practices have led to cost-efficiencies and improved environmental outcomes on their fields. More information and data on their efforts is available at 4RFarming.org.

4R Nutrient Stewardship provides a framework to achieve in-field goals, such as increased production and profitability, enhanced environmental protection, and improved sustainability. The 4R concept incorporates practices that use the right fertilizer source at the right rate, at the right time, and in the right place.

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The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) is the leading voice of the nation’s fertilizer industry. Tracing its roots back to 1883, TFI’s membership includes fertilizer producers, wholesalers, retailers and trading firms. TFI’s full-time staff, based in Washington, D.C., serves its members through legislative, educational, technical, economic information and public communication programs. Find more information about TFI online at TFI.org. Learn more about TFI’s nutrient stewardship initiatives at nutrientstewardship.org.  

Foundation for Agronomic Research Names John D. Jones Director

Washington, D.C. – The Fertilizer Institute today announced the selection of John D. Jones as the Director of the Foundation for Agronomic Research.  Jones will provide oversight of the 4R Research Fund, coordinate a 4R Researcher network, and support other strategies to advance 4R nutrient stewardship. The 4R Research Fund is a science-based research initiative aimed at improving agricultural sustainability by expanding knowledge of the 4Rs. The Fund is supported by the fertilizer industry and other stakeholders.

“John Jones brings a unique breadth of experience to the Foundation for Agronomic Research,” said TFI Vice President of Stewardship and Sustainability Lara Moody. “Having served as the primary agronomic advisor for a yield contest winning soybean farmer in Kansas to conducting instrumental research for understanding soil and phosphorus loss in Iowa and advocating for science policy that supports agricultural research on the local, state, and national level, John is uniquely-qualified to lead FAR.”

Jones holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy & Environmental Science from Kansas State University, and a Masters’ Degree in Soil Science-Soil Fertility from Iowa State University (ISU).  At present, he is finishing his PhD in Soil Fertility and Sustainable Agriculture at ISU. He is a winner of the 2019 American Society of Agronomy Future Leaders in Science Award from the Tri-societies and a recipient of the 2018 Robert A. Sloan Award in Sustainable Agriculture from ISU. He has extensive agricultural retail experience organizing and leading on-farm research grower networks and implementing progressive agronomic practices that highlight profitability and input efficiency.

“John’s research, teaching, and industry experiences reflect the very scientific framework in which 4R nutrient stewardship is grounded,” said Moody. “He is adept in leveraging multiple sources of funding, coordinating multiple researchers and staff members, and strategically planning future research program directions and will be an asset to our nutrient stewardship efforts.”

TFI’s advocacy efforts during the last session of Congress resulted in identification of the 4Rs as a priority research area within the 2018 Farm Bill. This landmark legislation influences the United States Department of Agriculture’s research expenditures including National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant funds and the Agricultural Research Service research efforts.

The 4R Fund  most recently awarded nearly $2.7 million to five research efforts in California, Arizona, Utah, Arkansas and the South (Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas) to projects focused on almonds, vegetables, tart cherry, potatoes, wheat, corn and corn silage, alfalfa, cotton, rice, and soybean. Those funds were leveraged with $3.2 million from multiple stakeholders to total $5.9 million in research.

Leadership Transition is Underway at The Fertilizer Institute

Washington, D.C. –  The Fertilizer Institute’s (TFI) President and CEO Chris Jahn notified members of TFI’s Executive Committee that he has been selected to serve as the President and CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC). To ensure a smooth transition, Jahn will continue to lead TFI until late October.

TFI’s Executive Committee will establish a Search Committee that will operate under the leadership of TFI Board Chairman Tony Will.  

“On behalf of TFI’s Board of Directors, I extend my thanks to Chris for his work on our industry’s behalf,” said Will. “TFI staff is dedicated to serving our industry and we anticipate continued excellence during the transition and beyond on our agenda to help feed the world in a safe and sustainable manner.”