SASKATOON — Producers delivered a blunt message to Canada’s agriculture ministers last week, saying their sustainability lies largely in policymakers’ hands and the ministers have to get it right.
A panel told the annual federal-provincial-territorial meeting that governments must look at what farmers and ranchers are already doing with regard to environmental practices and then at areas that need improvement.
Kristjan Hebert, who farms 22,000 acres near Moosomin, Sask., said greater collaboration would be ideal.
“My message was that the only risk that actually can keep me up at night is policy, and so that they really need to understand that they hold a hammer big enough that the only thing that will ruin my farm is them,” he said in an interview after a panel presentation to the ministers’ annual meeting.
“I try not to be that blunt with politicians but it’s the truth.”
“We need to collaborate a lot more, from those of us that are boots on the ground to those that are making policy, to ensure that we’re making the proper long-term infrastructure investments and right policy so that not only can we be sustainable but really let’s capture the opportunity for Canada to be some of the best in the world.”
Agriculture ministers at last week’s meeting in Saskatoon signed a new policy framework that increased funding to programs. However, it will also require producers with allowable net sales of at least $1 million to have an agri-environmental risk assessment in order to receive AgriInvest contributions.
Producers are concerned about recent federal proposals to require cross-compliance between environmental and business risk management programs.
Hebert and livestock producer Tara Davidson told the ministers that carrots would work much better than sticks.
Davidson, who farms near Ponteix, Sask., said producers are already doing great work on their own.
“For example, with respect to livestock and forage we have VBP+, we have (Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef) audited programs. Those are shining stars for the sector and I think because they’re voluntary, uptake is genuine. I don’t want to see us get down the road of more regulations,” she said after her presentation.
A recent Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute paper on cross-compliance said the idea wasn’t the best. It would increase volatility risk and muddy the waters for producers. Authors Al Mussell and Tyler McCann said business risk management programs have negligible environmental impact.
“Pursuing multiple program objectives with a single set of programs increases the risks that the programs will not deliver on either outcome effectively and increases the government’s vulnerability to provide ad hoc supports,” said the report, which was commissioned by Grain Farmers of Ontario.
Cross-compliance would lead to challenges with effectiveness, an increased moral hazard, administrative burden and potential impact on actuarial soundness, it said.
The report concluded that targeted environmental programs would deliver better results and that there is a need for “deeper dialogue.”
Davidson told the ministers there are inequities in policy for forage and livestock and a definite need to improve BRM programs for the sector.
“We’re losing forage acres at an alarming rate and if we don’t retain forage, if we don’t start increasing acres of forage, our cow-calf sector is at a real crossroads,” she said. “That needs to be addressed. So, we need to figure out ways to incentivize existing forage acres.”
Forage lands are sequestering carbon, providing wildlife habitat, conserving water and allowing water infiltration into pastures, she said.
“These forage acres are providing forage for livestock but also all these additional ecosystem services for all of Canada to benefit from,” she said. “We need to keep them and we need incentives to do so because we’re losing them quickly.”
Davidson added that forage sequesters carbon at a rate of 200 to 2,500 tonnes per hectare.
“I think we need to promote better practices but certainly recognize that the livestock and forage sector has been practicing regenerative agriculture for decades. These are new buzzwords for practices we’ve already been doing,” she said.
On the crop side, a key concern is the federal government’s intention to reduce emissions from fertilizer by 30 percent and how that could be accomplished.
“Obviously everyone’s watched Netherlands and Sri Lanka and I don’t think anybody in Canada wants to see that happen here,” said Hebert.
He said government can’t ignore the reality of what farmers have already done.
His definition of compliance is improved sustainability but that goes far beyond land to improved financial statements, his community and the industry.
“It’s not just one piece and right now they can get pretty focused on the land side, but if farmers are broke, they can’t really take care of their land and if communities aren’t full, they have nobody to work and if the industry isn’t capturing opportunities around the world, we’re just not doing our job,” said Hebert.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture second vice-president Todd Lewis said there was a similar discussion at the organization’s roundtable with ministers ahead of the federal-provincial-territorial meeting.
He said one line that came out of the roundtable sums it up: “It’s pretty hard to farm green in the red.”
“The biggest takeaway I think… farmers and producers across the country are more than willing to partner with the federal government in trying to improve our environmental footprint, but please recognize the good work that’s being done.”
Hebert recently spoke to the Globe and Mail about the message coming out of the federal government and the mainstream media.
“Right now, I think government and media are doing a pretty good job of making farmers feel like environmental pirates. We’d like to welcome everyone, media and policy, to the club of caring about the environment because we’ve had to do it our entire life.
“If we do a bad job, we don’t have a business, nor do I have something for my kids to take over, which is all of our goals. But let’s make sure we work together on how the words are used and how it’s portrayed around the world.”
