As President Joe Biden prepares to unveil his $3 trillion infrastructure plan this week, the measure is expected to also include a large focus on climate. The sudden switch in policy focus isn’t just occurring in the U.S, it’s also a large focus in Canada. And as new initiatives roll out, farmers across Ontario are working to connect with consumers.
“I think that the more that we can do to make sure that the general public trusts the science, that we’re using behind what we’re growing the way that we’re farming on our farms, the better,” says Brendan Byrne, chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) and an Ontario farmer.
That public trust is coming into light as Canada is starting some aggressive climate initiatives.
“I believe agriculture is definitely part of our environmental solution,” says Crosby Devitt, CEO of GFO. “When we look at Ontario farming and Ontario as a province, we’ve got over 14 million people calling Ontario home. And a lot of our farmers are farming very close to a lot of large communities. So, as you can imagine, there’s scrutiny on that.”
The growing scrutiny is now creating a challenge for farmers. It’s not just urban sprawl, but the climate demands in Canada that are adding layers of demands on their plate.
“I think one of the biggest challenges I see as a farmer is kind of that disconnect between some of the regulations that are maybe coming down on the farm and an understanding at a farm level of how these changes will affect the farm,” adds Byrne.
Just like what farmers are facing in the U.S., Canada is working on creating carbon markets for agriculture. But the details are still murky.
“Both Canada and the U.S. are creating these carbon economies for farmers in parallel,” says Shaun Haney, founder, Real Agriculture, based in Canada. “There’s one main difference, though, and that is Canada has really brought it a lot of programming with more of the stick approach as opposed to in the U.S., there’s much more carrot here at the beginning.”
Haney says that ‘stick approach’ starts with a carbon tax.
“That is really what has been a major, major component of most of the climate-oriented discussions the past few years,” he adds. “It started out at $25 a ton. But then the government announced back in December that they’re planning to increase it to $170 a ton by 2030.”
Haney says that tax is even applied to things on the farm that farmers can’t control.
“It’s not like you can get a solar power or electric grain dryer to dry your corn or wheat,” explains Haney. “You need to burn propane natural gas. And so, the farmers are incurring that cost if it moves to $170, without exemptions. It’s going to basically take up all the profit, and farm groups across Canada are really trying to push the government to provide some exemptions.”
In the U.S., Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has made clear he wants farmer buy-in, even proposing listening tours where farmers will be able to provide input. Haney says that piece has been missing in Canada.
“In Canada, it is the Minister of Environment and Climate Change that is creating a lot of these policies, not Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada,” he says. “That’s a major difference, which also increases farmer skepticism that these regulations will be good for them.”
Despite the pushback from some farmers in Canada, Grain Farmers of Ontario says Canadian farmers have a powerful story to share.
“We have good data to show that farmers are continuing to improve water quality in our practices, whether it’s conservation tillage, whether that’s for our nutrient management, those types of things,” says Devitt.
It’s a story in numbers for farmers still making acreage decisions for the new year, as agriculture’s focus on climate grows across North America.
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