Food manufacturers are increasingly looking for third-party verification of their FSA compliance. Growers, consolidators, and brands are opting for third-party verification because of this, as well as the sustainability expertise and perspective that independent verifiers can provide.
It has the range of knowledge and professional qualifications you’re seeking as one of the pioneers in sustainable agriculture certification. To examine farming operations, we have auditors on the ground all over the world.
SCS is also certified to undertake certifications under a variety of programs that have been benchmarked by the SAI Platform to the FSA tool.
The FSA Farm Sustainability Assessment is a tool from the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative to engage, assess, and improve farm-level sustainability practices.
For the agriculture business, IG is a global service provider and has been certified by SAI Platform to conduct Farmer Sustainability Assessments (FSA).
We verify this with the supplier and the farmers who they buy their products from in this initiative.
Founded in 2002 by the food sector, the SAI Platform aims to promote sustainable farming around the world. The SAI Platform already has over 90 members from all points along the food and beverage value chain. The SAI Platform develops tools and guidelines to support the development and implementation of sustainable agriculture.
The FSA is one of these instruments. SAI Platform’s FSA program aims to help farmers and businesses transition to sustainable agricultural materials production.
A list of 112 questions is included in the FSA’s checklist, which covers a wide range of subjects.
A farm or farm management group can claim an achievement level (Bronze, Silver, or Gold) if they meet benchmarked criteria.
The farm or farm management group must complete self-assessments, which are then validated by a troll to ensure accuracy. It’s the combo of alternatives one and two.
The FSA procedure can be broken down into three distinct steps.
The farm’s management team should be aware of FSA sustainability criteria, and they should be involved in the process.
The supply base’s farming practices are evaluated.
It’s all about ongoing progress, pushing toward improved farming practices. If a company or farm wants to publicly claim a certain FSA performance level of their farm supply base or the number of farmers participating in the FSA program, they must undergo third-party verification. Verifications by third parties include a farm management system assessment and on-site farm evaluations.
In addition to helping businesses and farms save time and money, the FSA also serves as a valuable resource.
It reduces the effort of evaluating and verifying many farm practices using various schemes and codes by providing a single, industry-aligned, and widely used tool.
Since they only have to perform one evaluation for a single customer instead of many assessments, farmers save time and resources while also increasing their chances of doing business with companies interested in sustainable sourcing.
Food Corporations – Use the FSA tool to help you achieve your sustainable sourcing objectives. SCS will work with you wherever in the world to evaluate your current operations, develop goals, and adopt responsible supply chain procedures.
Farms – Earn one of three performance tiers based on your level of adherence to essential, basic, and advanced criteria:
Bronze: A strong foundation of sound agricultural methods. Essentials are covered at 100% while basic needs are covered at 75%.
Silver: Leading companies have recognized sustainable farming techniques. Essentials are covered 100%, basic is covered 80%, and advanced is covered 50%.
Gold: Outstanding agricultural techniques. Essentials are covered 100 percent, basic is covered 100 percent, and advanced is covered 75 percent.
This program assists food and beverage firms, as well as farmers, throughout the whole food and beverage value chain, with the goal of achieving sustainable agricultural product production.
Benefits The FSA program provides a wide range of benefits, including:
Supporting and improving production sustainability across the supply chain,
Improving long-term economic prospects,
Allowing businesses to meet client demands for social and environmental factors.
FSA (Farm Sustainability Assessment) is a powerful new tool that gives you – firms in the food and beverage value chain all around the world, a single, easy-to-use tool for evaluating sustainable practices and sourcing more and more sustainably farmed agricultural products.
It’s a free, multi-purpose reference tool that you can use to compare your company’s code to third-party certification schemes and even country/region-specific regulations.
If no standard exists, it can also be used as a self-assessment and a tool to convey your expectations to the supply chain. Many big brands have already implemented FSA and are using it to examine and compare sustainable farming practices.
