Good morning. My name is Stephen Vandervalk, and I am president of the Grain Growers of Canada. I farm near Lethbridge, Alberta.
I'd like to discuss how biotech research helps me manage my farm. To explain to you how biotech has changed my farm and its practices, we need to go back to how my father used to farm with the tools he had.
Back in the days of Treflan to control wild oats and canola, you needed to spread the product on and fully till the soil up to four inches deep, twice. Then you were ready to fertilize and seed and would then till a third time and sometimes a fourth time. Finally, there were no products whatsoever to control wild broadleaf weeds. By tilling the ground so often, you exposed the soil, now black powder, to all sorts of environmental factors, including the wind. Watching your land blow away has to be the most sickening feeling in the world.
How things have changed today with the tools that are available to me. How I seed my canola today is very different. First I spray the field to start with a clean slate. I then seed and fertilize in one minimum tillage pass. After the crop is up, I then go in and spray. I have a choice of different product options to control all weeds, both grassy and broadleaf weeds. This also allows me to choose between different modes of action to control weed resistance. Then I am ready to combine.
I've essentially eliminated two or three steps, all of which include tillage and extra equipment. I want to emphasize this: one minimum tillage pass instead of three or four full tillage passes. On my farm, tillage is the enemy. It releases carbon as well as precious moisture to the atmosphere. I burn far less fuel, and my soil organic matter from these practices has increased 25% to 30%. By increasing organic matter, I can store more moisture and carbon, allowing my yields to go up. I therefore can put more organic matter back into the soil. This is a positive cycle that works well for my farm and my land.
Another benefit associated with biotech crops is the ability to change crop rotations from how my father used to manage his crops. He was forced to grow crops that would work for him, mostly based on wheat pressures and moisture situations. I am now able to bring pulses into my rotation. This increases the health of my soils, lets me diversify my marketing, and increases my yields in subsequent years. Where my dad planted crops dictated to him by the environment, I am free to plant whatever crops make the most sense for my farm.
We irrigate some of our land, and with these farming practices we irrigate far less than we used to. In fact, our irrigation district is expanding acres for the first time using the same amount of water. The reason is that in the past five to ten years, they have not used all the water allowed in their allocation.
These new farming methods have been a game changer for my farm, not just for the bottom line but for how sustainable my farm is going into the future.
In conclusion, on my farm I am as efficient as I can be with today's technologies.
All of us here today hear all the time about doubling food production by 2050. With very little new arable land left, the only way to meet this goal is by growing more with less. This means we need to reduce input needs for each unit of output. This can only be accomplished through new technologies. This is why we need to look seriously at biotech cereal crops as well. Cereal crops are getting less and less competitive to grow each year and are becoming crops I have to grow for rotation rather than crops I want to grow.
Richard will speak further on this.