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www.gourmetnews.com n JANUARY 2020 GOURMET NEWS 7 4 Global Collaborative Launches Effort to Address Soil Health, Climate Change Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment, together with founding collab- orators Stonyfield Organic, the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture's LandPKS project and Foundation for the Food and Agriculture (FFAR), have launched OpenTEAM, the first open source technology ecosystem in the world to address soil health and mitigate climate change. OpenTEAM is projected to provide quantitative feedback on millions of acres of farmland by 2024. OpenTEAM, or Open Technology Ecosystem for Agricultural Management, is a farmer-driven, interoperable platform to provide farmers around the world with the best possible knowledge to improve soil health. Currently, farmers are faced with an ever- expanding assortment of decision-making software; however, these tools often do not "communicate" with each other, making it difficult to transfer, share or use by farmers and scientists or in supply chains. With OpenTEAM, farmers are not only in control of their own data, but also able to enter data once to access all available tools in the OpenTEAM collaborative. OpenTEAM offers field-level carbon measurement, digital management records, remote sensing, predictive analytics and input and economic management decision support in a connected platform that reduces the need for farmer data entry while improv- ing access to a wide array of tools. The plat- form will support adaptive soil health management for farms of all scales, geogra- phies and production systems. OpenTEAM will also accelerate scientific understanding of soil health by providing more high-quality data to researchers collaborating on the proj- ect. To date, more than one dozen organiza- tions have joined to develop, fund and im- plement OpenTEAM. These include The Soil Health Partnership; General Mills; Col- orado State University/USDA-NRCS Comet Farm; Applied GeoSolutions, LLC; DNDC Applications, Research and Training; Dagan, Inc.; Michigan State University Global Change Learning Lab; Purdue University Open Technology and Systems Center (OATS); University of British Columbia Center for Sustainable Food Systems; Regen Network; Our.Sci; Quick Carbon at Yale F&ES; U.S. Cover Crop Council decision tools; Sustainability Innovation Lab at Col- orado (SILC); The University of Colorado Boulder; and FarmOS. Wolfe's Neck Center will coordinate OpenTEAM from its headquarters on more than 600 acres of conserved landscape and farmland on the coast of Maine. Implemen- tation and demonstration began in fall 2019. Field testing will continue in the 2020 grow- ing season across the U.S. and international hub farm networks. "At Wolfe's Neck Center, we are collabo- rating to create solutions that address climate change through regenerative agriculture," said Dave Herring, Executive Director, Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment. "OpenTEAM pairs agriculture with open source technology to accelerate soil health right here in Maine and around the globe." The more than $10 million public-private collaboration is made possible by a $5 mil- lion grant from FFAR, with more than $5 million matching contributions coming from across the network, including a $200,000 grant from The Stonyfield Foundation and $200,000 in in-kind contributions and a grant from Stonyfield Organic. "Optimizing soil management practices not only improves soil health, but also pro- tects the environment," said FFAR's Execu- tive Director Sally Rockey. "At scale, OpenTEAM can improve soil management practices for farmers around the globe and mitigate the effects of climate change." "Stonyfield is strongly committed to re- ducing our greenhouse gas emissions," said Britt Lundgren, Director of Organic and Sus- tainable Agriculture at Stonyfield Organic Yogurt. "Over half of our emissions come from agriculture, so in order to hit our target we know we need to work with the farms who provide our ingredients and help them reduce their emissions and sequester more carbon. OpenTEAM will enable us to do this, and track farms' progress so we can be confident we're hitting our goals." "We are inspired by the level of collabo- ration, leadership and vision our Open- TEAM partners have provided," said Dorn Cox, PhD, Research Director, Wolfe's Neck Center. "Through the power of open technology, we aim to make what was in- visible visible and in so doing the unvalued valuable." Market of Choice Places Community at the Core By Greg Gonzales Market of Choice lives up to its name with the range of products on its shelves, and shoppers coming into any of the 10 stores scattered around Oregon from Portland in the northwest to Bend in the southeast feel as if they've been transported somewhere that connects them to the food, their lifestyle and their community, says Beth McDonald, Vice President of Per- ishable Product and Merchandise. "And that's intentional on our part," she adds. Choice isn't just part of the name, it's the ethic of the stores, down to how they organ- ize products. "You don't have to go to a specific section of the store to find your natural or organic products," said Amy Delaney, Manager of Customer Experience. "It's all there on the shelves, right next to the conventional prod- ucts, which gives the customer the choice to choose what they like. Whether they want or- ganic pasta or Kraft mac and cheese, both are right there next to each other, for them to have the choice." Among the offerings are from-scratch bak- eries in each of the 10 stores. "We are one of the few places that does custom cakes from scratch, whether that's a first birthday or a wedding or any kind of special event," Mc- Donald said. "Our customers know they have that choice to come to our store and have that service in our perishables department." Custom, personalized service is crucial to the store experience, said Marcus Purkapile, Kitchen Manager at the flagship Eugene store. He said the quality and local products the stores provide require a high level of salesmanship and ample time to help cus- tomers find exactly what they want. That, he said, builds a loyal customer base. "A lot of people, we know by name. They come in every day," Purkapile said, adding that some of their customers grew up shop- ping there as kids. "We get a lot of regular customers. A lot of the time, when people are walking up – especially in the mornings – we're already starting to put their order to- gether. We know exactly what they want." The bakeries are completely open, so shoppers coming into the store can see the bakers at work, according to Vicky Ander- son, Bakery Manager at the flagship location in Eugene, Oregon. "When they come in, they see 15 busy bees back there working, everybody doing their jobs. It brings that fresh in-house reality to them, and they really get a kick out of that." Constant communication with the cus- tomer base helps set the store apart, Ander- son said. "Market of Choice allows each store to adjust to their communities," she said. "It's not as if every store has to be ex- actly alike; we have the freedom to come up with new ideas.... When people want special, they come to Market of Choice. When they want to create that wow factor, they come to Market of Choice. If it's an occasion that re- ally matters, and they want the best, they come to us." New Campaign Sheds Light on Beef Animal Care Standards Consumers will soon learn about the steps beef farmers and ranchers take to care for their animals and to produce high quality beef in a new promotion and advertising campaign about the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program. BQA trains farmers and ranchers on best practices and cattle man- agement techniques to ensure their animals and the environment are cared for within a standard set of guidelines. The program began 30 years ago, and today more than 85 percent of beef produced in the U.S. comes from a farmer or rancher who has been BQA certified. The formally producer-facing BQA pro- gram, will now be introduced to consumers via a campaign designed to meet their desire to learn more about how beef is produced. The integrated marketing and communica- tion campaign includes a new video from Beef. It's What's for Dinner. that brings the BQA program to life by highlighting how cattle farmers and ranchers across the coun- try raise cattle under BQA guidelines. The video will be used in marketing efforts and is available to consumers on the new BQA section of BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com. Consumers will also be able to learn more about BQA through interactive "BQ&A" In- stagram stories addressing common ques- tions about how cattle are raised. The video, website and social activations provide con- sumers with an overview of the BQA pro- gram and the ongoing commitment of cattle farmers and ranchers to caring for their ani- mals and providing the safest and highest quality beef possible. "According to market research, the major- ity of consumers say they consider how and where their food is raised when making a meal decision," said Josh White, Executive Director of Producer Education at the Na- tional Cattlemen's Beef Association, a con- tractor to the Beef Checkoff. "The BQA program offers consumers assurance that there are consistent animal care standards in place across the beef industry. BQA exem- plifies what beef farmers and ranchers have always cared about – a commitment to car- ing for their animals and providing families with the safest and highest-quality beef pos- sible, and we look forward to introducing this important program to consumers." The foundation of BQA is a set of educa- tional resources promoting animal care prac- tices that are based in science and align with governmental regulations. These resources are reviewed by an expert advisory group consisting of farmers and ranchers, veterinar- ians and animal scientists who meet quar- terly to evaluate the program, discuss trending topics, review the latest research and make recommended changes or updates, as needed. The BQA program specifically addresses and provides training on cattle handling, an- imal health, animal nutrition and transporta- tion, among others. "With the vast majority of the beef supply in the U.S. today coming from a BQA certified farmer or rancher, and many packing plants and restaurant chains setting BQA requirements, consumers should have the utmost confidence in the beef they consume and purchase both at restaurants and supermarkets," White said. Cattle farmers and ranchers can become BQA certified by either attending a class- room course taught by a network of hun- dreds of state BQA coordinators and trainers or by completing a series of robust online courses. Certification is good for three years, after which time farmers and ranchers must become re-certified to ensure they have the most up-to-date information and are trained on the latest BQA guidelines. Not only does the BQA program provide guidelines for proper animal care and wel- fare, these management guidelines also re- sult in the production of higher quality beef. Today, the beef industry is producing more high-quality beef today than ever before, with more than 80 percent of beef grading the highest available USDA quality grades of Prime or Choice. For more information about the BQA pro- gram and the high-quality beef produced today by U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers, visit www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com.

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