b'Sustainable Innovations in Agriculture: Highlights from the 2024 Potato Expo.At the January 2024 Potato Expo in Austin,Potato Expo provided a robust Texas, three growers shared their uniqueopportunity for learning through networking and the Expooor perspectives on what sustainable farmingboasted a lot of technology, means to them.inspiring ideas around future Michel Camps: Blending Passion with Advanced Technology advancements. Jonk shared he is committing to optical sorting technology to enable him to Michel Camps and his wife run a 4,000-acre farm in Alberta,serve seed customers more ef ciently.cultivating sugar beets, grains, and potatoes, combiningAlyre Poitras: Champion of Soil Health and heritage and innovative practices.Regenerative Agriculture Located in New Brunswick, Alyre Poitrass potato farm has I enjoy educating children about farming. Many kids in the Coaldale area have no idea that French fries are made frombeen thriving for four generations. He met with the Soil Health local potatoes and that the big McCain plant manufacturesInstitute last year to assess hiselds and learn more about them! says Camps. Prior to COVID, he participated in aregenerative agriculture practices and soil conservation. classroom agriculture program for grades 4-5 where hePoitras reduced tillage and adopted different varieties of shared his passion and uses a deep fryer to make French friespotatoes. Poitras notes, We are already seeing the bene ts of in class. Additionally, his annual open farm day attracted 400the regenerative agriculture practices that we put in place, in visitors last year.the soil organic matter and in the quality of the potatoes. He is Camps is forward-thinking and anticipates a future wherenoticing less erosion and an improved texture to his soil which repetitive tasks on the farm will be automated. Activities like rockis important given the signi cant precipitation New Brunswick picking or managing weeds will be transformed, decreasing thereceived in the last year. While these practices carry a cost, need for manual labour and increasing ef ciency.He predictsthe expense is justi able when the ROI is increased yield and many opportunities emerging in Alberta for growers as thebetter quality, in addition to less tillage and fewer passages potato industry continues to grow.which also carried a cost. He enjoys sharing hisndings with When asked about the most rewarding part of his job, Campslocal growers and seeing them adopt similar practices. smiles, When you nurture the crop through summer, monitorPoitras is pleased with his early progress and says, You have to issues, take action, all the way until harvest time when binsstart somewhere and adopt small changes. What we take from are full and you close the bin doorthats the best feeling. the soil, we must give back. It was rare tond worms in the soil Russell Jonk: Focused on Sustainability andbefore but since we have started driving these practices on our Customer Engagementfarm, we are noticing an abundance of biodiversity. Russell Jonk sees agriculture as a part of the solution forUni ed Vision: Embracing Challenges and Opportunities reducing environmental impact. He and his family runThese growers share a vision of sustainable and innovative 12,000 acres of rotational crop including seed and processfarming. Their commitment extends beyond their farms potatoes so a sustainable operationbothnancially andto educating the public and engaging with customers, environmentallyis paramount. Coming off a dry season inensuring that the industry continues to thrive while reducing Manitoba, Jonk is excited about the groundwork he laid downenvironmental impact. The Potato Expo served as a platform with cover crops and other regenerative techniques.In theto showcase growers achievements and demonstrate that short term, his regenerative agriculture efforts aim to reducein the dynamic and evolving nature of modern agriculture, wind erosion and secure topsoil; his longer-term goals targetsustainability and innovation go hand in hand.water holding capacity and in ltration. He sees the McCain Innovation Hubs, like the one at Owen Farms in Manitoba, aslling a void to provide testing and research. The practical focus is key. Farmers want to innovate, improve their practices, and reduce environmental impact but just like in any other business, economics and risk tolerance come into play. Commercial scope trials and incentives are important, says Jonk. We are McCain https://www.mccain.com/sustainability'