Shedding Light on Sustainability
Consumers are increasingly interested in a more sustainable food system and backing this interest up with their wallets, putting pressure on farmers to continually innovate in the way they produce food. According to a recent study conducted by McKinsey and NielsenIQ, consumers are shifting their spending toward products with environmental, social and governance (ESG) claims.
Fortunately, the poultry industry has a great story to tell when it comes to how far we’ve come in improving our sustainability. And it’s incumbent on all of us to do a better job telling it.
Connecting animal welfare and environmental stewardship
For starters, there is a natural synergy between animal welfare and environmental stewardship, which has become clearer, pun intended, given the innovation occurring within animal lighting. New advancements in energy-efficient lighting, including LED technology, help reduce energy consumption, a key consideration for the resource-intensive poultry industry. Optimizing light for animal comfort and health is also a key component in more humane and productive agricultural systems.
Ensuring our consumption is sustainable with sustainable farming practices
Our global population of 8 billion people (expected to grow to 9.9 billion by 2050) is using more of its resources than the earth can currently provide. Compounding this problem is the continued environmental damage in the form of greenhouse gasses and energy consumption. We clearly need to make our consumption sustainable, and this includes a continued focus on sustainable farming practices. These practices include, for example, permaculture - a design system that applies principles found in nature to the development of human settlements; urban agriculture - localizing our food system so we grow it close to home, including cities; plus many more.
Making sustainability efforts easier to measure
Of course, we want to ensure our sustainability efforts are making a difference. Customer sustainability surveys for egg producers, while a source of valuable information, can be time consuming and can often include challenging requests. Recognizing this barrier, the American Egg Board (AEB) is currently developing a master sustainability survey to help streamline the process for egg producers.
Sharing the benefits of sustainable farming
Speaking of measuring, it might seem obvious but while it’s great when our sustainability efforts make a difference we must share these benefits with consumers. For example, sustainable farming uses up to 56 percent less energy per unit of crops produced, creates 64 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions per hectare, and supports greater biodiversity levels than conventional farming. And, while sustainably produced food is more labor-intensive than conventionally made food, it has the potential to create 30 percent more jobs.
Sustainability part of our DNA
At ONCE by Signify, sustainability is part of our DNA. Over the past 125 years, Signify has pioneered key breakthroughs in sustainable lighting and was a driving force behind several leading technological innovations, including LED. Our products are designed to improve overall farm sustainability, advance animal welfare, as well as increase poultry and swine production. We continue to push the boundaries of what is possible and raise the bar on our expectations.
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