This content is sponsored by Clean Fuels Alliance America.
The National Mall is typically known for its iconic monuments and historic significance, but it was recently transformed into a showcase of agricultural innovation as big pieces of farming equipment took center stage.
Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol building were combines, tractors and other large-scale tools.
It was an event hosted by the agriculture industry, showing off the latest innovative technology that helps farmers do their jobs in a more efficient and eco-friendly way.
Visitors were able to get an up-close look at machines that are often only seen on America’s farm fields.
“Farmers are engaging in a whole lot of practices that increase efficiency in production, which by nature reduces carbon emissions,” said Paul Winters, director of public affairs and federal communications for Clean Fuels Alliance America, the national trade association representing the biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel industries.
Many companies that manufacture agricultural equipment are able to collect data at the field level on what farmers are doing to increase efficiency.
That data has shown that the carbon profile of farming is constantly improving.
“People are thinking about sustainability because it improves the bottom line for farmers, and that’s a key part to sustainability, making it economically profitable for farmers to do it,” Winters said.
Producing more with less
The National Mall event was hosted by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, a trade association representing off-road equipment manufacturers and suppliers.
Nick Tindall, the organization’s senior director of regulatory affairs, called agriculture “the most technologically intensive industry in the world, outside of defense.”
“All this technology is all about doing more with less, and that has tremendous environmental sustainability benefits,” Tindall said. “Efficiency allows us to produce more food with less land, less water and less everything.”
One of the most advanced pieces of technology on display was a sprayer that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence.
Throughout the growing season, farmers must spray herbicide to make sure that weeds aren’t coming in and taking nutrients away from crops.
“When we go out and apply herbicide to control weeds, the technology we have now allows us to target that with things like auto guidance and steering,” Tindall said. “It allows us to put the active ingredient where it needs to go and nowhere else, which is important from an environmental standpoint because you’re using fewer chemicals.”
The sprayer is made by John Deere, the company that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines and lawn care equipment.
According to John Deere, farmers who use the sprayer are seeing a two-thirds reduction in herbicide use.
“In the past, maybe you would have sprayed a whole field to get some weeds that were here and there,” explained Miles Chiotti, a public and industry relations leader at John Deere. “This sprayer has a series of cameras scanning the ground, only spraying where it sees a weed.”
Chiotti added that the machine “constantly collects more data as it goes through a field, so it gets smarter over time.”
Also on display on the National Mall were self-driving vehicles, which offer farmers numerous benefits, enhancing efficiency and productivity.
“When you take the farmer out of the equipment, you can make the equipment smaller, which means you can get into the field sooner when it’s wet,” Tindall said. “It opens up your planting windows and gives you the opportunity to remove people from the application of active ingredients.”
Giving farmers a helping hand
One tool helping farmers that isn’t a large piece of equipment is the Fieldprint Platform, a calculator to help farmers understand their overall environmental impact.
Field to Market, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting resilient ecosystems and farmer economic vitality, created the platform.
“Whenever you talk about sustainable agriculture, you need to have farmers at the center of the conversation,” said Kelsey Swango Billings, the vice president of innovation and stakeholder engagement at Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture.
Farmers and other stakeholders can use the Fieldprint Platform to measure sustainability metrics that are key to supporting better environmental outcomes.
Such metrics include efficient land use, water use, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Farmers can use the tool to compare themselves to their neighbors, to other farmers in their state and to national averages.
“Fieldprint projects can include thousands of farmers and aggregate their data to tell a better story about sustainable agriculture,” Billings said. “It’s all about measuring their footprint.”
To discover more ways that governments, nonprofits and businesses are innovating to reimagine approaches to energy use, go to WTOP’s Energy Strategy Series 2024.
