Bayer CropScience announced new web based tracking tool for growers

Bayer CropScience announced at the National Potato Expo (NPE) in Orlando, Fla., the launch of Good Growing Link, a Web-based tracking tool powered by food safety and traceability technology leader FoodLogiQ, Inc.

The Good Growing Link helps users identify, measure and improve their sustainability efforts, and provides a tool to merchandise these contributions to customers and other stakeholders.

Bayer CropScience expects the Good Growing Link will help the entire food chain demonstrate and communicate its commitment to sustainability—starting at the farm level.

"Agriculture has been and must continue to be focused on sustainability due to the link between the land and growing practices and their impact on the world around us,"said Brian Hrudka, food chain manager for Bayer CropScience. "However, we at Bayer see a growing interest from consumers and the food chain regarding the origin of food and how it is produced. That's why we worked closely with FoodLogiQ to create the Good Growing Link—a secure online reporting tool that allows everyone within the food chain, including growers, processors, retailers and food service suppliers, to track, measure, improve and report their sustainability profile. Perhaps most importantly, it helps users create a sustainability trail marking the operation's progress over time, acknowledging that sustainability is not a destination but a journey."

As a member of the Good Growing Link online community, users can enter new data or extract existing data from other sources regarding operational inputs and practices such as water, energy and chemical usages. The tool collects that data and generates a sustainability report, or dashboard, customized for the downstream customer. Once the report is created, users can create a link directly to their own website for public review or print to satisfy a customer's specific sustainability criteria.

"We developed the Good Growing Link,"continued Hrudka, "as a tool to help all those within the food production enterprise measure and improve on their efforts to utilize resources carefully and more efficiently in order to continue providing safe, affordable and healthy food to a growing world population."

In 2011 Bayer CropScience, in partnership with the National Potato Council, implemented a Good Growing Link trial project with growers and processors within the potato industry, the results of which are being presented at several panel discussions throughout the NPE event.

The Good Growing Link sponsorship, one of several projects within the Bayer CropScience global Food Chain Partnership, is part of its broader commitment to sustainability efforts that help ensure a healthy and abundant global food supply.