traceability within their value chains, and supporting and communicating the good stewardship that farmers have and continue to implement on their farms. The landscape of sustainability programs is expanding, and programs are evolving in their sophistication as companies and value chains develop approaches to align with international standards. Programs can vary in the sustainability pillars they cover, the types of data required to demonstrate progress, and their integration within value chain logistics. Some sustainability programs focus on validating an existing level of sustainability and encouraging continuous improvement. For example, Soy Canada identified an increasing demand from international customers for demonstrated sustainability of soybean production and proactively responded by developing the Sustainable Canadian Soy Program. Currently, the interest for this program is primarily from users of food gradeand Identity Preserved (IP) soybeans. Other sustainability programs focus on demonstrating outcomes from practice adoption to meet targets, scale action within value chains, and improve landscape resiliency. Johnson highlights that programs focused on accounting outcomes often start with farmer-focused information sessions and data collection to establish baselines and monitor progress. She also notes that these programs are often flexible in practice adoption depending on farmers' interests and constraints and that incentives and verification data (e.g., photo cover crop adoption) are becoming integral components of program design. FORECASTING OF SUSTAINABLE VALUE CHAIN PROGRAMS While there is a significant focus on climate action in agriculture, the capacity and interest in sustainable value chains are expected to evolve to include other ecosystem services that farmers provide, such as enhancing biodiversity. This evolution is starting to be observed through emerging frameworks for conducting nature-related financial disclosures and corporate target setting to reduce impacts on nature. Likewise, 16 Balpataky suggests, "the loss of pollinators is an obvious link for farming, but it's much more than this — it's soils and the health of the whole system. I think biodiversity will become more important in the coming years." Approaches to measuring and monitoring environmental outcomes, such as reductions in GHG emissions from practice adoption, are rapidly becoming more advanced and accurate. This trend signals a rising demand for insights on practice adoption and application of technologies such as remote sensing and digital platforms to estimate outcomes. Moving forward, the challenge is to design and implement programs that enable winwin opportunities for all participants along the value chain, including farmers. Lisa Ashton is the sustainability and environment lead at Grain Farmers of Ontario. l continued from page 15
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