The chairs of two farm organizations partnering in the Road to 2050 initiative are concerned with federal expectations following last week’s release of the federal Sustainable Agriculture Strategy.
The discussion paper, released December 12, laid out five objectives to align with federal carbon emissions goals for 2030 and 2050. Nokomis, Saskatchewan farmer Brett Halstead, who chairs the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, said the strategy had “big and fluffy” goals and language that “didn’t pass the smell test.”
“The overall theme of developing a sustainable agriculture production — in Canada, we already have that, especially in Western Canada. That's part of the disappointing thing every time something like this gets talked about is farmers and the credit for what we've already done doesn't get talked about,” he said.
“Farmers are the original environmentalists. They do what they can to protect their soil, their resource for the next generation.”
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) will co-chair phase one discussions on the document until the end of March. Twenty organizations are involved, but Halstead feels the west was left out.
“There's some national ones. There's lots of NGOs, lots of supply managed, but there's really not a lot of farm groups especially from the West, which is your leader, and are already innovating and becoming more sustainable,” he said.
“We're doing what we can now we produce more grain on the same number of acres. If, for example, the world went organic, we would not be able to feed it, and that does not necessarily mean more sustainable either. I think in some of the groups’ opinions, that means more sustainable, but not in my mind.”
The paper references climate change mitigation practices in France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK. The Netherlands wants to slash nitrogen emissions in half by 2030 and to reduce livestock herds by one-third to reach its goals.
Halstead said AAFC Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau ruled out using an “EU type of model” when he attended a round table discussion she hosted at Regina’s Agribition in early December.
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“[In] Europe, they basically pay you not to farm it. This money comes out of thin air somewhere. And really, all Europe's going to do is export their carbon use to somewhere else, and then import the grain and say, ‘Well, look what we've done. Look at us, we're so good.’ But, I'm also a taxpayer, and I look at that--how do you afford this? Well, I guess we just keep running deficits for everything,” said Halstead.
“We're a whole 1.5 to 1.6% of world emissions in Canada. And I worry about our global competitiveness, too, because I'm sure Russia and some of the countries like that are … just going to do their thing, and our drop in the bucket isn't going to matter.”
The paper calls for more “activities that increase farmers' access to the information, advice, and training they need to effectively implement practices on their farm that advance environment and climate outcomes. For example, agricultural extension, demonstration sites, regional climate risk assessments, on-farm GHG calculators, life cycle analyses.”
The wheat commission and Grain Growers of Canada launched the Road to 2050 initiative during the summer to ensure farmers have a say in how the federal government tries to hit its emissions targets. In an interview with Western Standard, GGC Chair Andre Harpe said Ottawa has to keep talking to producers and understand the limited time and money farmers can devote to federal goals.
“This is getting really interesting for farmers. Farmers are extremely busy as it is. Farmers are lifelong learners, but at the same time, they are business owners, and they're fairly smart people right now, and are fairly aware of what's going on,” said Harpe, an oilseed and grain farmer near Vauxhaul, Alberta.
“If you look at the price of equipment now, the price of employment, the price of employing new technologies is not free. And it is actually downright expensive in some cases. And I don't think we can be expected to bear that cost alone.”
The paper also mixes political objectives with environmental ones. One portion read, “A sustainable agriculture strategy would [facilitate]… an environmentally socially and economically sustainable agriculture sector that that also contributes to advancing reconciliation.”
Asked what reconciliation had to do with farming, Harpe replied, “We're all on this land together, so we need to work with each other. We do want to get indigenous people to be farming more. But across Western Canada, there's a lot of land being farmed that is indigenous owned.”
