Why Supporting IFEEDER Is Imperative for Companies in Animal Agriculture
Written by: Guest | March 11, 2024
By: Steve Lerner, Ph.D., senior scientific and business advisor, Novonesis Animal and Plant Biosolutions
In the tapestry of sustainability and innovation, there are stories that serve not just as individual successes but as rallying cries for entire industries. One such unfolding narrative centers around the urgent need for sustainable agriculture—a call that reverberates from the fields to the boardrooms, from rural communities to urban centers. While some players, like Novonesis, have set important precedents, the full story is yet to be written.
The journey toward sustainable agriculture is not a solo endeavor; it is a collective mission. This is where specialized organizations like the Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER) play a pivotal character in our tale.
Picture a world, where more stakeholders in the animal feed and animal production sectors pool their resources to invest in research and educational organizations, like IFEEDER. This is not charity or a tick-box exercise in corporate social responsibility; it is an investment with potentially exponential returns. And we are not talking merely about financial gains—although those are likely—but about environmental stewardship, community well-being and the legacy we leave for future generations.
Take, for example, the ever-present need for sustainable agriculture. It is a complex challenge that requires comprehensive solutions—from soil health and water management to energy-efficient farming practices.
IFEEDER is at the forefront of this work, leading research initiatives that seek to reconcile agricultural productivity with environmental sustainability.
The fruit of such labor is not the work of a single entity but a collaborative effort that marries various kinds of expertise, financial resources and real-world experience. Imagine your investment today leading to an agricultural breakthrough tomorrow that transforms the industry. The return on that investment would be beyond quantification, affecting not just economic bottom-lines but the very planet we call home.
Transport yourself to gatherings such as the Feed Systems Sustainability Summit, where IFEEDER brought stakeholders together to hold conversations deeply immersed in envisioning sustainable futures. Here, research organizations, fortified by substantial industry investment, offered invaluable insights. These rigorous, science-based contributions serve to make our discussions in the industry more data-centric, the solutions more empirically grounded, and the trajectory toward a sustainable future more attainable.
Backing up a bit, the inaugural Feed Systems Sustainability Summit, held in the fall of 2022, convened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the offices of Novonesis, Inc. We, at Novonesis, take immense pride in our active participation and substantive contributions to this important event and IFEEDER’s Sustainability Road Map project. Our commitment, made real through the allocation of time, personnel and financial resources, underscores our belief in the importance of proactive investment.
We strongly suggest that such endeavors do yield significant returns, fostering the development and deployment of robust sustainable strategies that can be rigorously debated and meticulously crafted. We certainly believe that an investment today in IFEEDER could well and truly serve as the foundational bedrock upon which future sustainable strategies are found and implemented. The ripple effects of this investment go far beyond your organization or even your industry. They extend into broader society, informing academic research and inspiring future generations. Investment in entities like IFEEDER becomes part of a larger ecosystem of change, woven into educational curricula, public outreach programs and grassroots community initiatives.
So, this is a tale still being penned, a narrative with room for many authors. It is an open invitation for you to contribute a chapter, to invest in the sustainable agriculture of tomorrow by supporting IFEEDER today. In doing so, you are not merely signing a check; you are signing up to be a part of a transformative journey—one that promises not just financial dividends but a richer, more sustainable world for us all.