The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) has marked a significant year in advancing corn sustainability on a global scale. Since February 15, 2023, the Council has aligned its mission of developing international markets and enabling trade with the growing sustainability requirements in international supply chains. This initiative primarily focuses on corn, but is expected to expand to other commodities like barley and sorghum.
A cornerstone of this initiative is the Corn Sustainability Assurance Protocol (CSAP) and the Sustainable Corn Exports (SCE) web platform. These tools are designed to assist corn growers and the industry in meeting sustainability demands in international markets. The CSAP offers comprehensive information on U.S. laws and regulations that support sustainable corn production, while the SCE web platform allows for the issuance of Records of Sustainability. These documents, provided free by U.S. exporters to international customers, meet entry-level sustainability requirements.
Over the past year, the Council has engaged in over 15 major global interactions, reaching over 1,600 stakeholders through various events and direct engagements. This outreach has significantly raised awareness and adoption of the sustainability tools. The SCE web platform now has more than 110 registered users, including major U.S. exporters and international corn product importers from over 20 countries. The platform has facilitated the issuance of over 130 Records of Sustainability, covering more than one million metric tons of U.S. corn products, valued at around $192 million.
A key achievement of the Council’s sustainability efforts is the benchmarking of the CSAP against the Sustainable Agriculture Alliance (SAI) Platform’s Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA). This alignment has led to the CSAP achieving gold-level equivalence under the FSA benchmarking process, enhancing its integration into the sustainable procurement processes of major food and beverage companies.
