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Ernie Schirmer, owner operator of Ernie Schirmer Farms, inside the cab of his cotton harvester that has an
automated steering system to achieve precisely straight rows, near Batesville, TX. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
animal feed and the meat and dairy products the has estimated that the Green Deal strategy
feed is used to produce. will result in lowering Europe’s agricultural
production by 12%.
For example, the National Cotton Council
launched a nationwide initiative in September to The Green Deal “Farm to Fork” strategy goes
set a new standard for sustainably-grown cotton. so far as to suggest replacing some traditional
The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol “brings quanti- feed sources, such as soya grown on deforested
fiable and verifiable goals and measurement to land, with alternatives such as insects, algae and
sustainable cotton production and drives contin- fish waste.
uous improvement in key sustainability metrics, The standards that exporters will have to fol-
thereby giving brands and retailers the assur- low to keep selling into the EU market are still
ances they need for their supply chain,” says a moving target, too. An executive with the
NCC spokeswoman Marjory Walker. European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation

To be sure, the EU rules have raised alarms told Agri-Pulse in an exclusive interview that
within the Trump administration because of U.S. soybean exporters will likely be required to
their potential to discourage the use of geneti- tighten their sustainability standards.
cally engineered crops and pesticides. A recent But Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean
study by USDA’s Economic Research Service Export Council, believes that U.S. soybeans

56 www.Agri-Pulse.com