Fieldprint Calculator: A Measurement of Environmental and Economic Sustainability Performance of Agricultural Systems in the Southern High Plains

Fieldprint Calculator: A Measurement of Environmental and Economic Sustainability Performance of Agricultural Systems in the Southern High Plains

The Southern High Plains of Texas is a thriving agricultural economy that depends on the sustainability of water and natural resources. Companies and stakeholders have begun to revolutionize agricultural sustainability in order to market sustainable products from farm to table. In order to remain economically viable agricultural production in the Southern High Plains region have made transitions to conserve irrigation water and reduce depletion of the Ogallala aquifer that supplies water to the region. Efforts to encourage environmental and economic sustainability have been made by companies such as Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. Field to Market has developed the Fieldprint Calculator-a tool used to allow producers to track components of their operation and the impacts of the production systems to evaluate sustainability. Over time, a producer can analyze results from the calculator and adjust for changes in the future to improve sustainability. The objective of this study is to analyze sites from the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation and the output data from the Fieldprint Calculator to develop a sustainability index. The sites will be over a nine year period, 2007-2016 and evaluated on the sustainable footprint based on the seven metrics provided by the Fieldprint Calculator.