ABOVE: Levi Hanson leads his pig around during Project 1590’s From the Ground Up ag education event on Thursday in Granada.

GRANADA – For Project 1590’s eighth annual From the Ground Up education event, local experts weighed in on Our Farms Our Future: Sustainability in Action.

The Hanson Family hosted the event on their farm. They started the event by honoring how important 4-H had been to their upbringings and interest in farming. To do so, local 4-H students were allowed to showcase their pigs by walking them around the grounds for attendees to see.

Family member Neil Hanson said it is easy to get caught up in catch phrases and buzzwords with sustainability.

“The easiest thing I can think of to describe sustainability to somebody that’s not in agriculture, we want our livestock to be comfortable,” he said. “We want our crops to be comfortable. What we’re doing with the technology, we’re able to harvest the data. See where we’re at trying to be as efficient as we are, so we’re not overusing things.”

The panel of experts at the event was Director of Public Policy Strategy and Sustainability for Minnesota Pork Lauren Servick; Farm Business Management Instructor at Minnesota West Tech and Community College Sherburn Jonah Mayo; Martin County Soil and Water Conservation District Outreach Coordinator Jesse Walters; and Valero Plant Manager Nicole Gries.

From the Ground Up provided the questions for experts. On the topic of current uses of sustainability, Walters said soil has some of the original sustainability practices dating back to after the Dust Bowl.

“Some recent changes we’ve seen at work, it’s a lot of farmers looking at their soils and looking at ‘What’s my most efficient use of this farm?'” He said. “‘How do I keep this going and improve my soils, to improve my yields and improve my whole experience?'”

Regarding long-term sustainability efforts, Servick said the truth is having a farm that can transition between generations.

“A lot of it now is taking evidence of things farmers have been doing for a long time, taking credit for those good things, and using data and information to make decisions about what are the energy goals in the future.”

For goals within their organizations to further sustainability, Gries said having different advantages with different locations helps them find more sustainable partners.

“We have this network we can reach into,” she said. “For us locally, it’s pulling more farmer origination that is able and willing to certify sustainability. It helps our ability to market those gallons as sustainable, and it does become more valuable as programs are allowed. As the political environments change, not only in the US, but in other countries, we’re carefully monitoring what’s going on and looking for those opportunities.”

Furthering sustainability also comes from the drivers of momentum for sustainability causes. Walters said they’ve been busy as ever the last three years because of said momentum, and there are a lot of things that drive it.

“Your consumer desires are going to drive some of it,” he said. “Your lawmakers are going to drive some of what comes down to us financially we can offer the land owners. Between education and stuff you can find on Twitter, YouTube, etc, a lot of the producers and land owners here are finding ways they can improve their practice, and they want to.”

Regarding misconceptions and concerns surrounding farming sustainably, Mayo said farmers are worried about profitability when changing operations as opposed to staying the course.

“What is good for one farmer might not be good for the next farmer,” he said. “All the farm operations have things they excel in and things they can improve on. Whatever we can do in the short term and doing those experiments to see, ‘Okay, how does this work on my land and how does it work for my operation?'”

State Senator Rich Draheim was in attendance for the event. He said the event covered ground he had heard before, but it was done well and he got to speak with constituents.

“It’s great to get caught up with people from Martin County,” Draheim said. “Right away, I got stopped and had a lot of great discussions about what’s going on down here in the farm community and at the local co-ops.”

Interacting with the public is what Draheim said drives home the importance of attending events like Our Farms Our Future: Sustainability in Action.

“Not everybody wants to call up or send an email,” he said. “Here you get it right from the people that live down here. Not everybody is political, and not everybody knows who you are, so it’s nice you can have a frank conversation.”

From what he’s heard talking with constituents in recent weeks, he said people seem to be in a good mood and things are trending in a positive direction.

For more information on Project 1590, visit https://project1590.com/.