Table 3
Conditions, Criteria and Requirements for
Effective Livestock Environmental Management Systems

Arbitrarily divided groups of participants were asked to identify both necessary and desirable conditions a livestock environmental management system would have to meet in order to effectively fulfill the purposes/roles/uses assigned to their group.

Instructions to each group were the following:

Brainstorm conditions a livestock EMS would have to meet to fulfill the type of EMS uses (or purposes) assigned to your group. In order to accomplish the stated use, what would you expect the EMS to do or how would you expect it to operate? What would be some of your criteria or requirements for a successful livestock EMS? What would have to be true of the EMS itself or of the policy or market environment for these ends to be accomplished?
Following the brainstorm, discuss and evaluate each condition or expectation expressed, and if possible categorize each as "desirable" or "necessary" (recognizing that "necessary" may or may not be desirable for all parties). The goal of this discussion is not to reach consensus at this point, but to understand each other, make sure all perspectives are represented, and ensure that the most important conditions or expectations are laid on the table.

Group #1 identified the following criteria as NECESSARY for an effective livestock environmental management system that improves overall farm management:

• The EMS should be practical and user friendly.
• The EMS should be credible for farmers, neighbors, bankers, regulators etc.
• The EMS should have an educational component in the delivery by local sources.
• The EMS should be flexible in the options and alternatives provided for consideration.
• The EMS should provide understanding of the connection between each of the EMS elements and steps.
• Everyone within the boundaries of the EMS should own a piece, receive training, participate in the quality control mindset throughout the operation.
• The EMS should build on existing management systems.

Group #1 identified the following criteria as DESIRABLE for an effective livestock environmental management system that improves overall farm management:

• Society ought to share the costs of implementation with producers, e.g. providing rewards, incentives and benefits, and technical and financial assistance.
• Implementation of the EMS ought to result in a market endorsement.
• The EMS ought to be endorsed by processors.

Group #1 identified the following additional conditions, criteria or requirements for an effective livestock environmental management system that improves overall farm management (it ran out of time to classify these as "desirable" and/or "necessary"):

• The livestock environmental management systems should be site specific, tailored to different segments, regions, and sizes of livestock production enterprise.
• There should be sufficient consistency across these site specific systems to explain and demonstrate their value to the public.
• For the livestock EMS to be effective, the public must receive information and have input.
• The tool should help a producer define why s/he wants to do an EMS in the first place.
• The EMS itself should define its goals, its scope, and its relationship to ISO 14001.
• The EMS should be based on quality standards, not performance or prescriptive standards - set a floor, not a ceiling.
• The EMS should generate a sustainable and restorative livestock production system.
• The EMS should evidence systems thinking.
• The EMS should define evidence of implementation (i.e. be auditable).
• It should be easily updateable.
• It should serve as a good comprehensive management tool.
• It should incorporate accountability.
• Materials for the livestock EMS must define the process and translate terminology.
• The EMS should provide ideas for improvements for pollution prevention.
• The EMS should provide measures of economic, ecological, and social sustainability.
• The EMS documentation and evaluation should define real profitability impacts over time.
• The EMS should cultivate a continuous process improvement mindset.
• The EMS should be useful to those electronically connected, but available through multiple media.
• Implementation of the EMS will require personal commitment of the operator.
• The EMS should lend itself to certification.
• The EMS should identify the root cause(s) of common compliance problems and ways to return to compliance.
• The EMS tools and training should be bilingual.
• There needs to be a companion piece to the EMS tools and materials for use in training/education/development.

Advice from the group to the work team:

• Streamline training.
• Provide help regarding generic work procedures.
• Relate the farmers' existing monitoring and measurement processes to the EMS approach.
• Help the producers define their goals.
• Have a systematic way of looking at their business.
• Assess all activities and prioritize.
• Ensure the auditing tool helps recognition of priorities.
• Recognize complementarity with current programs.
• Provide an entry-level EMS.

Group #2 reformulated the question on the agenda as: What actions or criteria will be needed or desirable to facilitate the education process for the EMS? Group #2 identified the following criteria as NECESSARY for an effective livestock environmental management system that generates learning for improved stewardship:

• This education process needs a consistent message that:
  
  Provides the producer with an understanding of the EMS process.
  Shows how the process objectively prioritizes issues.
  Defines the coordinated roles of agencies and other groups.
  Concisely coordinates with other plans, permits, goals, etc.
  Provides the opportunity to identify redundant requirements (and then remove them).
  Reduces the administrative burden.
  
• The education process needs to demonstrate the benefits to producers and to society of implementing an EMS. It should identify win-win solutions that are cost effective.
• The EMS should be a system based approach focused on results.
• It should be flexible
• There should be incentives for participation.
• The project should get farmer and/or farmer cooperative input.
• The EMS should entail learning for producer, regulator, and general public.
• The EMS itself should be a non-static evolving system.
• On-site hands-on assistance should be available to producers implementing EMSs.
• EMS materials should show where to get help.
• There should be a consistent training program for assistant providers.
• Information should be made available on the applicability of the EMS to smaller operations (case studies or other information for small farms).
• There needs to be a voluntary, anonymous method of sharing data (maybe like a national database).
• There should be third party participation (non-regulatory).
• The EMS should provide a synthesis (linking) of ag production and environmental data.
• The livestock EMS should be producer driven.
• Both in development and implementation stages, there should be opportunity for involvement of local community (highlighted as both necessary and desirable).
• Keep it simple
• A funding and support system for livestock EMS implementation is needed.

Group #2 identified the following criteria as DESIRABLE to facilitate the education process for the EMS:

• It needs to demonstrate the benefits to producers and to society of implementing an EMS:
  Educate producers on the cost of cleaning water and educate society on the cost of implementation by producers.
• Implementation of the EMSs should meet local watershed objectives.
• There ought to be voluntary recognition for producers' participation (producers should be queried for their consent before being publicly recognized).
• The program should provide training in community involvement.

Group #2 identified the following additional criterion or requirement:

• The education process for EMS should identify environmental issues without technical solutions, or where no technological solution is yet available (examples might include presence of antibiotics, hormones, and prions in runoff).

Group #3 identified the following criteria as NECESSARY for an effective livestock environmental management system that improves profitability and/or product markets:

A livestock EMS must have marketing incentives if it is to be actively used and implemented. These incentives should include:

1. Profitability - economic return
2. Social - improved neighbor relations
3. Producer input
4. Regulation flexibility
5. "Green" labeling

Group #3 also identified the following conditions, criteria or requirements as NECESSARY for effective communication about and diffusion of livestock environmental management systems:

Need to define TO WHOM and WHAT we are marketing?

1. All producers must be included in EMS audiences.
   
   1. Producers who accept EMS.
   2. Producers who have no environmental concerns.
   3. Producers who are concerned but experience no need for documentation.
2. It is a requirement that the EMS will work. It will address environmental concerns by establishing a baseline and measuring performance.
3. To market EMS, it must be credible to the following groups:
   
   1. Public
   2. Producer
   3. Government officials
   4. Processors
   5. Advocacy groups
4. For marketing the EMS, we need to define the marketable product.
5. To market EMS to a producer it must be:
   
   1. Specific to the farm operation
   2. A user-friendly tool
6. To succeed, EMS must have producer commitment to the process.

Group #3 identified the following conditions, criteria or requirements as DESIRABLE for an effective livestock environmental management system that improves profitability and/or product markets:

1. Communication should clarify, after an EMS is implemented, who will it benefit? How will it benefit? (both necessary and desirable).
2. Do not reinvent the wheel - learn from other assessment tools. (both necessary and desirable).
3. An EMS has the ability to go beyond compliance (both necessary and desirable).
4. An EMS should address and hear consumer needs. Take EMS beyond producer to retailer, processor etc. (both necessary and desirable).
5. EMS must be marketed on the basis of assessment based information (both necessary and desirable).
6. EMS, similar to ISO, should have international credibility.

Group #4 identified the following conditions, criteria or requirements for livestock environmental management systems to be effective in relation to regulation:

1. Directs producers towards accountability with environmental issues.
   
   1. Segregates those "in" and "out" of compliance.
   2. Provides a proactive approach for those not permitted.
2. What are the incentives for the farmer/producer?
   
   1. Producer needs clear understanding of benefits.
   2. Agencies may need to allow for regulatory flexibility.
   3. Incentives require acceptance by the environmental community simultaneously with producer acceptance.
   4. How do we make the implementation of an EMS appealing?
   5. Acknowledgement as a farmer/producer that he is doing the right thing.
3. Tool must provide flexibility.
   
   1. Does it address individual state needs?
   2. Is it of value to only smaller operations?
   3. Can it be successfully used for large operations?
   4. Is it applicable in varying situations?
4. Are producers ready for EMS tools?
   
   1. They are ready to improve stewardship
   2. May not be ready for EMS tools.
5. How will confidentiality be addressed?
   
   1. May be important to encourage producer participation.
   2. Environmental community may not accept confidentiality of EMS results.
   3. Is confidentiality used to hide bad actors?
6. How does the EMS relate to regulations?
   
   1. Should define regulations and producer compliance.
   2. Should complement what the regulations require.
   3. Should not be used as a replacement of regulations.
   4. Allow the producer to step beyond current regulations and address future issues (plan for a moving target).
   5. Can be used to show continued improvement towards compliance.
7. How will it assist with environmental planning?
   
   1. The EMS should serve as a platform for selecting an appropriate strategy among alternative strategies.
   2. The EMS should complement ISO 14001 participation and/or completion.
   3. It should allow fine-tuning of existing well-managed systems.
   4. It needs to be results based and not BMP based.
   5. The EMS should define reasonable goals based on current technology and science for the producer.

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