Being a good steward to the environment has always been a priority at Vanco Farms. Since his start in 1982 Peter VanNieuwenhuyzen has always maintained a 3-year minimum crop rotation giving the soil a rest between crops of potatoes. Vanco Farms was one of the first farms on PEI to complete both the PEI environmental farm plan as well as the enhanced version of the same program. The PEI EFP is a program that finds ways to reduce water erosion damage to fields and ways to elimanate damage to the local watersheds. We also been audited and awarded the Good Farming Practices Certificate by AgroPoint (a University of Guelph affiliate).

Over the years Vanco Farms has been active in finding ways to reduce chemical usage by using equipment that significantly reduces spray drift as well as volume of spray required. We have also been a leader in using natural ways to increase the quality of the soil using various composts, seafood by-products and green crop plow downs. We are now using many organic methods in our conventional production to minimize the use of pesticides. Some of these methods include use of crops such as buckwheat to eradicate reduce pest populations, use of oil seed radish as a natural fumigant to reduce fungi levels in soil and use of fall planted cereal crops to reduce herbicide requirements.

We believe that our generation has been blessed with God's beautiful creation to work, sustain and deliver to the next generation in the same or better condition then we have received it in.