Battlefield Farms of Rapidan, VA has chosen to begin the MPS-ABC Certification program. This step was taken as a result of questions and discussions from both their retail customers and other growers. Dave Jones, Sales Manager for Battlefield Farms explains, “Both the big box stores and the supermarkets are looking to us for solutions of how to define sustainability in our industry. We believe the MPS program will help us understand how we are doing, and give us factual information which we can pass along to our customers.”
Anthony van Hoven, General Manager of Battlefield Farms, explains further: “Over the years we have made many changes to improve the efficiency of our operations which we now believe are good steps for sustainability: water recycling, more efficient growing practices which use less energy and fewer pesticides are a few examples. As we speak we are firing up the ‘campfire’ on our new biomass boiler which will provide our primary source of energy for the greenhouses, eliminating fossil fuel energy except as a backup source of energy. We look forward to the reports which we will receive from the MPS program which will provide comparisons and become a management tool for us.”
Battlefield Farms was established over 22 years ago, initially as a hydroponic plastic range of 6.5 acres. Jerry van Hoven purchased the business and brought a vision of what today is over 40 acres of production, laid out carefully for opportunities for expansion and with the commitment to replant natural areas after construction to retain the natural beauty of the site. Jerry’s large family have all worked in the business, with Anthony, Bobby, Bill, Ben and Ken still involved in various roles as well as Jerry himself. The entire team has a commitment to quality which is readily apparent in visiting the greenhouses.
MPS-ABC is recognized worldwide as the environmental scorecard with over 4,000 participants in 55 countries. The basic principles of the system are a registration of 5 themes: use of crop protection agents / fertilizers / energy / water and waste, on a periodic basis. Through the qualification (MPS A, B or C), a grower is compared to other growers of similar crops in similar environments.
MPS is proud to have quality growers such as Battlefield Farms in their program and welcomes grower inquires in North America to their west coast coordinator, Charlotte Smit at (805) 524-9685 or c.smit@usa.my-mps.com, or to the east coast coordinator, Sandy Hering at (508) 758-3008, s.hering@usa.my-mps.com.
Source: MPS