Table 2
Purposes or Uses of
Livestock Environmental Management Systems

Most of the participants' responses to the following set of questions fell into five groupings. Responses are listed in these groupings as participants articulated them. Following each list is a summary interpretive statement for each grouping.

From your interest group perspective, what (potentially) could livestock EMSs do that would be valuable? How could they be used? What could they accomplish?

Roles, purposes & uses related to improving farm management

• Evaluate management practices not previously considered by producer
• Reinforce positive aspects of producer's management style
• Provide answers to nosy neighbor questions
• Provide producers opportunity to demonstrate a pro-active approach to environmentally sustainable management
• Avoid work & money for systems, equipment & paperwork that may not accomplish envtl objectives
• Galvanize, tweak, get most out of facilities; monitor and improve systems
• Help producers determine what it will take to stay in business
• Tool producers can use to track & assess what are doing
• Plan
• Any good farmer should know what's going on and how affecting neighbors
• Improve production efficiency
• Improve appearance and image
• Platform from which to efficiently implement strategies to achieve environmental objectives (distinguish platform/process and strategy to achieve a specific env objective -- need for former for the latter)
• 2nd level -- more proactive developing farmer plans
• Better management of environmental affairs
• Make money for producers
• Process of developing EMS (tech transfer) allows producers to stay in business; don't have to reinvent own wheel
• Realize economic benefits to farmers
• Contribute to producer profitability, economic sustainability

Some stakeholders perceived livestock environmental management systems as having the potential to improve a producer's overall management of his or her enterprise. In particular, they identified EMSs as having potential value for management aspects such as neighbor or community relations, efficient use of resources, and effective enterprise planning, as well as overall profitability.

Roles, purposes & uses related to improving stewardship

• Provide tools to understand environmental concerns
• Assist producers in setting environmental management goals & providing self-assessment to measure progress toward those goals
• Provide structured approach to developing sustainable and restorative ag systems
• Have producer buy-in to systematic approach
• Raising environmental awareness of producers/neighbors; draw people together to solve a problem
• Provide forum for on-farm research demonstration, better understand application of new technologies as developed
• Improve nutrient capture in more healthful, nutritious, safer animal food products
• Allow company to prioritize env impacts; have organized approach to deal with them; integrate with performance standards on daily basis
• 3rd party verified EMS
• Vehicle for 3rd party involvement (e.g. consulting businesses)
• Structure for producers to be environmentally proactive
• Provides consistent mechanisms and verification process re environmental impacts/correction
• Raise awareness of manure as a resource
• Address multimedia issues such as air emissions, threats to public health
• Address env challenges on farm & point out strengths
• More efficient nutrient use
• Reduce risks to food safety
• Help grower ensure and demonstrate env stewardship

Some stakeholders focused on the potential stewardship-enhancing role of livestock environmental management systems. They saw the EMS as a vehicle for raising environmental consciousness, reducing negative impacts on environmental and public health, converting wastes into resources, and demonstrating stewardship practices. Several identified the value of 3rd party verification for ensuring environmentally beneficial practices and increasing public confidence.

Roles, purposes & uses related to ag products markets

• Help market products at a premium ("green labeling")
• Meet a contract specification by a vendor
• Help producers determine how they can improve their image to get more markets
• Planning process, info toward reaching goal; need incentives, market forces moving this direction
• Supports nutrient trading -- adds incentives for smaller producers to implement
• Help provide good supply of food
• Green labeling and marketing incentives
• Certification contribute to trade competitiveness

Several participants discerned a role for environmental management systems in product differentiation and market access, and in meeting consumer needs.

Roles, purposes & uses related to communicating about environmental concerns

• Educate and inform; catch producer interest
• Raise awareness re environmental urgency
• Demonstrate its effectiveness as a process
• Promote awareness
• Public relations/broad background, proactive public education
• Improve public perception through community involvmnt
• Public relations; challenge to demonstrate value!
• Public participation in deciding how food is produced
• Educate Americans where food comes from
• Coordinate, document env progress on watershed management and conservation
• Document a product's env management
• Reinforce messages that growers working for 100% implementation of nutrient planning; reinforce messages growers hearing

A number of stakeholders saw livestock environmental management systems as a vehicle for producer and public environmental education. Much of this concerned improving agriculture's public relations (which generally accords the public a passive role), but others identified the EMS as a vehicle for public participation in agricultural decision-making.

Roles, purposes & uses relating to regulation

• Assure that env regs are met; document compliance
• Reduce regulations
• Keep regulators off the farm
• Make participants eligible for cost share
• Avoid mandated environmental solutions
• Help producers avoid hassling from regulators
• DENR doesn't have funding for annual inspections -- use EMS as a tool for good producers to excel, and be rewarded with more relaxed regulatory oversight
• Hold/stave off government regulations
• Tool for producers that fall below regulatory threshold
• One stop shop for regulatory & non-regulatory issues
• Allow regulatory flexibility
• Reach unregulated producers
• Educate producers on regulatory issues
• Write your own permit and abide by it
• Assess/reduce neg env impacts (reg/un-reg); improve community relations; flexible regulatory approach
• Demonstrate effectiveness; incorporate into regulations
• Shouldn't replace/weaken/avoid regulations or env laws -- could engender hostility
• Use in co-permitting, sharing NPDES permitting between integrator and growers
• Achieve state and national env quality objectives
• Basis for compliance inspector to judge gray areas to benefit of producer
• Opportunity to go beyond compliance; what regulate and what don't
• Provide non-regulatory avenue
• Resolve state/local vs. federal oversight; use as defense in local situations
• Bring uniformity across states

A number of stakeholders perceived livestock environmental management systems as having the potential to relieve regulatory pressure. Others emphasized their role in documenting compliance with regulatory requirements. Still others saw a role for livestock EMSs in promoting improved stewardship among enterprises that are not automatically subject to regulation due to their smaller size.

Other

• Coordinate among growers in all 3 of DelMarVa states; political sectors and industry sectors
• Different systems appropriate to size
• Benefit producers, regulators, advocacy groups, local elected officials
• Identify research needs/gaps
• Identify the ISO components that are relevant to the livestock agriculture context

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