Good Agricultural Practices (MPS-GAP) Help D.S. Cole Growers Further Improve Their Business
September 21, 2010 | 2 min to read
Recently D.S. Cole Growers has taken the next step forward on their path to achieving sustainability certification according to MPS-Florimark Production, the chainwide certificate of MPS combining environmental, social and quality aspects. One of the appealing aspects of the MPS process is that a grower can take small steps and earn one certificate at a time without being overwhelmed by the entire program.
After being the 1st certified participant for MPS-ABC in the United States D.S. Cole Growers has now opted for certification according to MPS-GAP (Good Agricultural Practices).
Doug Cole from D.S. Cole Growers explains why they have chosen this certificate after achieving the MPS-ABC certification in 2009:
“Certifying with MPS-GAP allows our company to show that we have gone to the next step towards sustainability. To accomplish this we found that many of the actions requested were already in place at our facility as it is in most North American companies. The pieces that we were missing were mostly items that we should be doing anyway, but put off unless forced to do so. For example, we had no emergency evacuation plan in place and we really should have one regardless of MPS-GAP.
Another action that was good for us was being sure that several of our staff have CPR training. MPS-GAP certification has focused our attention on details which are good for our associates and good for our business, and will require that we routinely update our attention to these details.
Unlike mainstream agriculture, our industry has slipped under the radar of scrutiny by the press. Being prepared to show that we are actively supporting sustainable activities can help growers avoid bad publicity issues in the future. The MPS program (MPS-ABC for environment and MPS-GAP for Good Agricultural Practices) creates a positive step in providing a healthy environment for our employees as well as promotion for our product in the marketplace”.
MPS-Florimark Production consists of 4 certificates, namely: MPS-ABC (environment), MPS-GAP (retail requirements), MPS Socially Qualified (social) and MPS-Quality. This unique combination makes MPS-Florimark the TOP certificate for sustainability!
There are also MPS-Florimark certificates for traders, auctions and in the future florists.
For any questions about MPS in general or one of our certificates please contact:
* Sandra Hering (regional coordinator East USA) at s.hering@usa.my-mps.com
* Charlotte Smit (regional coordinator West USA) at c.smit@usa.my-mps.com
* Arthij van der Veer (General International Coordinator) at 0031-621826940 / 0055-8588722424 or a.vd.veer@brasil.my-mps.com.
Source: MPS