Key Elements of Sustainable Agriculture (as per SCS Sustainable Agriculture Practice Standard)
Element 1. Sustainable Crop Production
The Standard identifies crop production practices that: 1) build and maintain a healthy agroecosystem, based on healthy soil structure and functioning; 2) preferentially employ biological, mechanical, and cultural methods to control pest and disease vectors; 3) minimize agrochemical inputs, favoring the use of reduced risk or US National Organic Program (NOP) permitted agrochemical options; and 4) phase-out those agrochemical inputs that pose significant acute and chronic risks to human health or ecotoxic risks to the environment.
Element 2. Ecosystem Management and Protection
The Standard identifies practices that protect the surrounding ecology including but not limited to waterways, riparian and wetlands habitats, high ecological value habitats and species, and other biologically and culturally significant areas.
Element 3. Resource Conservation and Energy Efficiency
The Standard recognizes practices aimed at increasing water efficiency, energy efficiency and resource efficiency in all stages of growing, packaging, transporting and handling of crops. Moreover, the Standard addresses the issue of global climate change related to agricultural products by accounting for greenhouse gas emissions throughout the product life cycle (from seed to store) from all direct and indirect sources, and establishing specific greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Element 4. Integrated Waste Management
The Standard identifies comprehensive waste management practices, including composting, recycling, and proper waste disposal for agricultural, non-agricultural, and hazardous wastes.
Element 5. Fair Labor Practices
The Standard defines practices that ensure a safe and equitable workplace for agricultural workers, addressing such issues as equitable hiring and employment practices, safe workplace conditions, workers’ right to organize, worker housing, child labor, access to health, education, and transportation services.
Element 6. Community Benefits
The Standard identifies producer practices that support local communities through preferential purchasing, hiring, and improvements or development, as well as addressing impacts caused by agricultural operations.
Element 7. Product Quality
The Standard recognizes practices designed to ensure product quality throughout the chain-of-custody and establishes quality assurance and traceability requirements designed to ensure that sustainably grown products are properly handled throughout the chain-of-custody and can be traced back to their source.
Element 8. Product Safety and Purity
The Standard identifies minimum acceptable food safety practices and food purity requirements for edible crops.
Process Facilitated by Leonardo Academy
The ANSI standard setting process is being administered by the Leonardo Academy. Leonardo Academy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1997 with a vision of advancing sustainability and putting the competitive market to work on improving the environment. Leonardo Academy is an ANSI accredited standards developer.
Backgrounder on ANSI Standards
What is ANSI?
- Private, nonprofit organization founded in 1918
- The sole U.S. representative and dues-paying member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- Mission: To enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems and safeguarding their integrity
ANSI’s Historic Role:
- Coordinating U.S. voluntary standards and conformity assessment activities — ANSI standards are voluntary, not regulatory
- Provides forum for private and public sectors to cooperatively work together toward development of voluntary national consensus standards
- Provides means for U.S. to influence global standardization activities and development of international standards
- Continuously evolves to meet challenges of global marketplace and demands of its constituents
ANSI Standards Setting Process
- ANSI provides all interested U.S. parties with a neutral venue to come together and work toward common agreements.
- ANSI itself does not develop American National Standards.
- The process to create these voluntary standards is guided by ANSI’s cardinal principles of consensus, due process and openness and depends heavily upon data gathering and compromises among a diverse range of stakeholders.
- Once the standard is established, it is open to all to users.
- All qualified certifiers will have the right to certify against the standard.
Federal Government Preference for Voluntary Standards
Federal government typically defers to voluntary consensus standards where applicable and appropriate, in order to:
- Eliminate the cost to the taxpayer of developing its own standards and enforcing them
- Provide incentives to establish standards that serve national needs
- Encourage long-term growth for U.S. enterprises and promote efficiency and economic competition through harmonization of standards
- Encourage reliance on the private sector to supply government needs for goods and services
(Source: OMB Circular A-119, Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities (Revised February 10, 1998).
Copyright Transfer
SCS has fulfilled its purpose of setting into a motion a national dialogue on sustainable agriculture standards through the recognized, open, consensus-oriented ANSI process. Now that the Standards Committee discussions are formally underway, SCS is assuming its role as one of many stakeholders participating in the national dialogue.
