Environmental Management Systems  

– a means of coping with changing climate and environmental issues

Drought, climate change, water shortage, biodiversity decline, genetic modification are all very real issues in the changing, and challenging, times for farmers.

EMS is short for Environmental Management System.  An EMS is a structured process that helps farmers assess and improve the environmental performance of their farm business.

Why is EMS important?  Some overseas background
About 70,000 Canadian farms have completed Environmental Farm Plans.  The Canadian Environmental Farm Planning program has been the model for several EMS approaches in Australia.  It was initiated in the province of Ontario in 1991 and has since been adopted nationally.  The process helps farmers identify and address environmental risks and opportunities.  It is entry-level EMS (not ISO 14001 – see later) and introduces farmers to self-assessment and action planning.

In Europe, several major supermarkets require farmers to provide evidence of responsible environmental management, as well as evidence of the farms being safe work places and the produce being quality assured.  This is known as EurepGAP® which has protocols that define Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and sets standards relating to farm and food safety, quality of produce and environmental responsibility.

EurepGAP requires that defined standards are met, whereas EMS is about having evidence of continuous improvement to address environmental impacts associated with farming activities.

VFF EMS Project Manager
Greg Smith
VFF
24-28 Collins Street, MELBOURNE 3000
Phone:  1300 882 833
Mobile:  0427 352 383
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