Leading Harvest, a non-profit organisation founded in the US, launches its industry-leading program in Australia to implement a world-first sustainability assurance program to help harmonise sustainability reporting across crops and regions.
Leading Harvest facilitates engagement and alignment across the supply chain, ultimately seeking to have all producers, buyers, farmers, facilitators and industry groups operating from the same, single standard. It also delivers savings, efficiencies, and better environmental outcomes across Australia’s agriculture industry.
The program launch covers around 540,000 hectares across 21 crop types covering all six states.
It comes after a 12-month pilot, during which the standard was developed specifically for the Australian markets and the market’s agronomic, regulatory, and operating realities.
The Farmland Management Standard addresses the following sustainability principles:
- Sustainable Agriculture;
- Soil Health and Conservation;
- Protection of Water Resources;
- Protection of Crops;
- Energy Use, Air Quality, and Climate Change;
- Waste and Material Management;
- Conservation of Biodiversity;
- Protection of Special Sites;
- Local Communities;
- Employees and Farm Labor; Legal and Regulatory Compliance;
- Management Review and Continual Improvement; and
- Tenant-Operated Operations.