SUSTAINABLE GROWER PROGRAM

Our Farmers' Success Is Our Success

Sustainability helps everyone, so to us, it’s natural to help everyone do it. We are always looking at how we can champion the efforts of our growers. We genuinely value the farmers we work with and want to find ways to support their operations beyond the price we pay.

Grain Millers' Sustainable Grower Program (SGP) is a free and voluntary program that encourages our farmers to track different areas of sustainability across their entire operation (all crops, livestock, food safety, etc.). The insights they gain can help them identify and make valuable improvements year over year.

The insights we learn benefit consumers and put us on the same page with people who want to know where their food really comes from. And it’s all done without even requiring farmers to sell their grains to us. We just want to make things better.

That which gets measured, gets better.

The SGP is based on the premise that the very act of tracking progress will spur continuous improvement in a non-intrusive way. By establishing objective end-scores on different areas of your farm, you can track your progress year after year. No rules, just knowledge you can use however you see fit.

Sustainability is a journey, not a destination.

But we have seen plenty of benefits along the way.

  • High-quality grains
  • Dependable and consistent supply
  • Direct grower connections
  • Environmentally conscious procurement

It’s the right thing to do.

Participation, knowledge, and improvements continue to rise, as these 2016 facts demonstrate.

  • 76 total farms
  • 188,000+ acres
  • Improvement in 18/20 areas since 2013
"Being our second year in the program, we can really start to see how this program has encouraged us to improve in different areas on our farm."

South Dakota Oat Producer

"I was skeptical at first on the value of this process, but I see the value moving forward now. It’s a changing environment for not only processors, but raw product suppliers, too."

Indiana Corn Producer

“We have been given the opportunity to be stewards of the land and our planet. This opportunity was given by those that have come before us. We must educate ourselves on how best to care for these assets in a manner that allows the next generation to flourish.”

Participating growers fill out an annual questionnaire based upon their operations. We made the SGP questionnaire robust: Over 2,000 questions measuring 20 different areas of sustainability in 8 unique categories. But hold on—we also made it easy, employing simple yes-or-no and check-all-that-apply questions.

The questions are non-invasive, the information is kept completely confidential, and YOU decide the areas you want to focus on as you progress through the program. The aggregate data also helps Grain Millers direct our research and human resources dollars into areas where farmers need more support and education.

Eight Unique Categories

  • Planning
  • Record Keeping
  • Environmental Protection
  • Legal Compliance
  • Economic Viability
  • Training and Competence
  • Food Safety
  • General Farm Appearance

Sustainability is a

Journey.

Grain Millers makes decisions based on shared values and invests in what is good - not just for us, but for the farmers we depend on, the customers we serve, and the world we all live in.

It's more than processing. It's our promise.

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