US Agriculture, an investment adviser focused on building stable and sustainable farmland portfolios, is pleased to announce the enrollment of all its farmland acres in the Leading Harvest Farmland Management Standard. US Agriculture manages over 59,000 acres of permanent and row crop farmland across the United States. Leading Harvest is a newly formed nonprofit organization whose Standard is a third-party audited certification that serves to provide assurance for the sustainability of farmland management. It identifies sustainable farming practices across a number of environmental, social, and governance issues.
US Agriculture focuses on sustainability from two distinct lenses – that of a financial steward seeking stable and growing returns for its clients and that of an environmental steward seeking to preserve and improve the farmland it manages.
“Partnering with Leading Harvest is an important step and a natural evolution of our firm given the continued focus we place on sustainability,” David Martin, Managing Director of US Agriculture, said. “Our commitment to Leading Harvest further proves our unwavering support for responsible and sustainable farming practices ensuring our most important resources are preserved for future generations.”
The Leading Harvest Standard challenges participants to monitor and make continuous improvement in their farm management system based on 13 sustainable farming Principles, 13 Objectives, 33 Performance Measures and 71 Indicators. It includes measures to efficiently use water, agricultural chemicals and energy to grow crops for useful agricultural products; minimize waste; and conserve soils, water resources and biodiversity. It also takes into consideration the well-being of farmland tenants, employees, contract management company employees, contract farm labor and local communities. Presently, over two million farmland acres are enrolled in the Leading Harvest Standard.
The Standard provides third party verification for operations and will guide continuous improvement through annual audits. KCoe Isom, a leading food & ag consulting firm, has been engaged to educate and guide US Agriculture’s efforts through the process.
For more information on Leading Harvest, please visit www.leadingharvest.org. For more information on US Agriculture, please visit www.us-agriculture.com.
