The National Mall received a make-over earlier this month when the Association for Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) brought rural living to Washington D.C. The Nation’s Capital transformed with producers, agriculture corporations and others taking over the National Mall to help showcase how innovation enables sustainability.
“We think it’s really important for us to bring the message of modern agriculture to the audience that really needs to hear it,” said Curt Blades with the Association for Equipment Manufacturers. “And that’s the regulators, policymakers, elected officials, staff and, frankly, the general public.”
Cherishing how far modern agriculture has come was what this event was all about. The National Mall has deep-rooted ties to agriculture that goes back to 1868 when the first Department of Agriculture building opened on the Mall. In the late 1800s, the Mall was a place for scientific discovery, as much as education, and the Department of Agriculture grew experimental crops on the Mall. While the newer Agriculture building is now home only to administrative offices, the grounds were transformed to tell modern agriculture’s amazing story.
Although there weren’t any crops around the “Innovation Enables Sustainability” event, the visitors were given plenty of opportunities to learn and explore American agriculture, including two dairy equipment manufacturers who demonstrated how to milk a cow robotically.
State-of-the-art Technologies
Lely displayed their Astronaut A5 Robotic Milking System as well as the Vector automated feeding system at this event.
Chad Huyser, Lely North America President, says that any chance they can display the newest and best innovations that is across agriculture in a setting like the National Mall is a tremendous opportunity.
“Along with political partners and groups that came through, we had thousands upon thousands of general consumers and to be able to tell the story of modern agriculture and specifically the story of what our dairy producers are doing was amazing and time well spent,” Huyser shares.
Showcasing technology, companies like Lely were able to not only talk about innovation and technology being used on American dairy farms but also talk about animal welfare and sustainability in greater lengths.
“Visitors were astonished that technology exists and is in use, that can milk cows and feed cows robotically,” he says. “They also want to know how animals are cared for and what modern agriculture looks like.”
Huyser says some intentional discussions circled around sustainability, and Secretary Vilsack touched on that. “We relayed the messages of being good stewards with the resources that our producers have at their disposal and that farmers are really the original people that focused on sustainability.”
‘Abe Would Be Proud’
Vilsack took the stage to help celebrate National Ag Day, stating, “There’s no question there’s a tremendous amount of creativity and innovation that’s being viewed here today to give people an opportunity to understand the nature of the business, the commitment of American agriculture to innovation, creativity and sustainability.”
The Secretary of Agriculture reflected on the rich history of the USDA and stated, “As I thought about this tour today, I couldn’t help but ask myself, ‘I wonder what Abe would think?’”
Vilsack also shared that agriculture industries are working together, facing big challenges and big opportunities. “And we’re rising to the challenge, and I think Abe would be proud of us.”
Huyser concurs with the Secretary of Agriculture about U.S. farmers rising to meet challenges and says the focus on sustainability has also risen to focus on a more holistic approach.
“When you look at how you take care of the animal, for example, we allow that animal to live and develop and grow and produce in its most natural environment,” he states. “A lot of times these sustainability topics - from environmental, to animal care and more - are very much interrelated.”
Doing More with Less
Another leader in milking equipment, DeLaval, was also at the National Mall event. They displayed the DeLaval VMS™ milking system V300 to allow visitors to learn about the automated milking process and how the data produced for increased efficiencies lead to stronger sustainability practices on today’s dairy farms.
DeLaval Global Head of Sustainability, Fabian Bernal, says that the inaugural event helped paint an amazing picture of agriculture being at the back door of U.S. legislators.
“Normally we are preaching to the choir when you’re talking to producers and industry professionals,” he noted. “Being in our nation’s Capital with our cornerstone pieces of equipment in terms of sustainability and development of technology was amazing.”
DeLaval’s VMS robot was live with moving pieces and people passing through came by and could see it working in action. While they didn’t have a live cow being milked, visitors could see how the robot arm could be monitored by a smartphone and could watch the actual milking process on a video.
“We would give people a phone so they could operate the arm and they were amazed,” he says. “This was such a foreign, yet fascinating process for them to be engaged with.”
This further opened dialogue that breached on sustainability, something Bernal is very passionate about. Born in Colombia, Bernal’s career has specialized in animal welfare, sustainability, milk production, farm management and more.
“DeLaval made a commitment to sustainability 10 years ago and our mission today is exactly the same as it was back then,” he shares. “A lot of discussion on doing more with less.”
How sustainability is looked at has changed over the last decade. It’s not just pinpointed to the environmental impact. “The language that we use around sustainability has been clear, the science around sustainability is much more precise, and estimations of sustainability are no longer looking at just the environmental side,” Bernal says. “We look at sustainability through three pillars – environmental, food safety and animal welfare, and social and economics.”
Bernal agrees with Huyser, stating sustainability is looked at from a more holistic viewpoint. “It’s better understood if we take in consideration the economics of the farm, the animal welfare, food safety and the environment,” Bernal says. “I think all are so interconnected and they all must be addressed.”
The transformed National Mall celebrated agriculture in a big way in 2022, leaving lasting impressions on those that otherwise would never see just how technology and sustainability are threaded together to help feed the world.
AEM and more than three dozen partner organizations, including Lely and DeLaval hosted the celebration, which they hope will be the first of many more.
