WASHINGTON, DC & NEWARK, DE - We in fresh produce have a vibrant future, and that is due in part to the important work of industry associations like the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA). “A Vibrant Future” is the name of IFPA’s pilot project which was submitted with a group of partners to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Recently, the USDA announced that it selected the project with an approximate funding ceiling of $15 million.
“IFPA applauds the USDA investment into all climate-smart projects and is especially motivated by USDA’s strong commitment to projects impacting specialty crops,” said IFPA Chief Science Officer Max Teplitski, PhD. “We are thrilled to see the ‘Vibrant Future’ project funded, as an investment into specialty crops is especially timely. This funding will allow us to ‘test-drive’ technologies that are climate-smart and also ensure financial sustainability of grower operations, develop marketing strategies to educate consumers on how fresh fruit, vegetable, and floral industry contributes to alleviating the climate crisis, and, importantly, gather data that will enable our industry to participate in the Green Economy.”
According to a press release, the project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production in order to establish a consumer-driven, climate-smart market for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The program was supported by several major partners, among them Measure to Improve, Bland Farms, Calavo, and many more. IFPA will issue a broad industry-wide call for other interested partners to join the project. IFPA is also an active partner of the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA).
“IFPA has been actively engaged as one of the members of the Steering Committee of FACA as we both recognize the need for bringing specialty crops to the table and ensure that our industry is part of conversations on climate-smart and carbon-smart innovations,” said Teplitski. “IFPA has long advocated that the federal investment into our industry’s R&D is long overdue, and we [are] grateful to see an investment of this scale.”
Attendees can hear more about the pilot program next at The Washington Conference, where Teplitski will discuss climate-smart agriculture with a panel of experts.
Cheers to IFPA and its partners on this exciting news!
