I thank the committee for the opportunity to present. My comments will be about the future for the agriculture and food sector in Canada, and the various opportunities and challenges it faces.
The context for the future of agriculture is important. Many things have changed over the past decade, and this change is accelerating. I want to provide some of the context by highlighting fundamental issues and ideas that underpin considerations for a progressive strategy for the agriculture and food sector in Canada.
Demands on this sector are growing rapidly. Traditional demands, as we all know, have been for a safe and reliable raw commodity, safe high-quality food, and some level of land or soil stewardship. There are many new demands, including clean water, high-quality and safe niche products, clean energy platforms, a connection to the land, health and wellness products, a healthy environment, cultural diversity, landscape stewardship, vibrant rural communities, economic potential, food security, and food sovereignty.
There are some key points to note about this situation. First, the demands on the agriculture and food and rural sector in Canada are accumulating. They do not trade off. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the Canadian agriculture and food sector is that for any set of these demands, they will not be required to do this or that, but this and that. Second, these demands increasingly are not only about what is farmed but also about how it is farmed. Third, these demands point to a heightened interest in agriculture on the part of consumers and urban people. Finally, such an accumulation of demands cannot normally be met through a narrowly focused agricultural strategy, nor can they be met by a simplified and non-diversified farming system on the whole. They require a strategy to create what might be called multi-functional, diversified, and integrated agricultural systems.
We understand well that agriculture is affected by the environment and that agriculture can in turn affect the environment, but increasingly, even among agriculturalists, there is a realization by society that agriculture is the environment. The vast majority of Canadians, and in fact the vast majority of people in the world, live in watersheds and landscapes that are farmed, and so agriculture is in many ways our most relevant environment. The water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the beauty and biological diversity of our surroundings are determined by the way in which our environment is farmed. This creates a tremendous feeling of ownership by urban people towards the agriculture around them, which presents a tremendous opportunity for urban-rural and urbanite-farmer relationships. There is also a tremendous opportunity for agriculture to take environmental leadership in terms of national policy and actions. Canada and North America's food culture is evolving rapidly and the desire to have a connection to food provenance and knowledge of food characteristics is much stronger now among the world's citizens than it has ever been. In this regard, the food market is rapidly diversifying and expanding both domestically and internationally, thus creating great opportunities but also challenges.
This context for Canada's agriculture and food sector is very different from what it was even 20 years ago. The needs and the market have changed fundamentally, and the sector is working to catch up. There are a lot of things that need to be done. For example, the current standard farming model can be characterized as having relatively simple production systems and relatively few cash engines on the farm, being reliant on commodity prices and being capital intensive, having high-risk biologically fragile systems, being reliant on purchased inputs, and having a management focus that is primarily financial. Farms must be large in order to compete. Although this model is well suited to an important and major sector of the market, that being transportable commodities, and it serves some societal needs and expectations well, it is not robust and flexible enough to meet so many of the new needs and new markets. It is also a biologically simple model and therefore one that is inherently susceptible to pest and disease attack, and not well suited to adaptation or to a changing climate.
In systems designed to serve a much broader range of needs, the markets are diversified and integrated, and they may include moderately complex to complex diversified production systems; multiple cash engines on the farm; niche sales and/or engagement in the value chain; reduced capital needs; moderated risks; biologically robust systems; flexibility and reliance on purchased inputs; a management focus that is financial, biological, and social; and farms that can be viable whether they are big or small.
It is easy to be an academic, especially when you are one like me, and to throw stones at the current state. I understand that there are real and practical reasons why it is difficult to make change happen, including changes in farming systems.
When I was teaching a third-year course in agronomy and weed management at the University of Manitoba, I used to ask the students what the barriers were to diversified and integrated farming systems. They showed great insight, and some of their answers included the following: a lack of infrastructure such as livestock facilities and processing facilities; market uncertainty due to fear of unfamiliar and new markets; lack of experience or training in managing livestock; lack of knowledge and experience with innovative endeavours at the farm, family, community, and institutional levels; no opportunities to gain experience or knowledge; lack of expertise in institutions, and institutions supporting a narrow range of primarily mainstream systems; and farm programs that do not necessarily support innovation or integrative systems.
So what does all of this mean to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the science and innovation strategy in Growing Forward 2? I hope that the following observations can provide some practical context and rationale for the challenges we need to tackle and the opportunities we can pursue. One example is the continued diversification and integration required in farming systems in order to lead an increasingly multifunctional societal demand.
I also hope that these comments can provide some rationale for an expanded role in economic development for the agriculture and food sector to meet rapidly expanding and accumulating domestic and international societal and market needs. I also hope that these comments highlight areas where Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is well justified in being the national leader, including progressive policies and initiatives on both the environment and food.
In relation to this, we at the University of Guelph and the Ontario Agricultural College are developing initiatives to move in these many directions. For example, we've partnered with Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada’s largest food retailer, which has provided funding for us to create North America’s first chair in sustainable food production. We've partnered with the Egg Farmers of Canada, which has provided funding for Canada’s first chair in poultry welfare.
The Dairy Farmers of Ontario and the Ontario dairy network have been long-time partners helping to support chairs in food safety and dairy food innovation respectively. We've been fortunate to garner support for Canada research chairs in food and health.
The Canada research chairs program and the NSERC industrial research chair programs are places where there could be more direction for establishing chairs relevant to the science and innovation needs of the agriculture and food sector. We have the Ontario premier’s chair in biomaterials development using agricultural feedstocks, and the soon to be expanding Bioproducts Discovery & Development Centre.
In addition, going back to the “this and that” idea I mentioned earlier, we still maintain a broader range of programs in plant and animal breeding and genetics, soils science, agronomy, greenhouse production, food processing, agricultural economics, consumer trends analysis, post-harvest storage, animal nutrition, herd management, pest management, etc.
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has also been a long-time partner and, through the University of Guelph-OMAFRA agreement, has led research on an increasing diversity of topics, reflecting the expanding role of the agriculture, food, and rural sector.
We also have long-standing research collaborations with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists, and are very pleased to have recently established two co-locations of AAFC scientists at the University of Guelph, who include Dr. Ali Navabi, a bean breeder in the department of plant agriculture; and Dr. Stefanie Torrey, who studies the links between farm animal behaviour, nutrition, production, and welfare within the department of animal and poultry science.
These co-locations have led to synergies in research. One example is Ali Navabi and Peter Pauls' recent $3.7 million Ontario research fund grant to sequence the bean genome—a first in the world—and to provide extra capacity to accelerate the training of highly qualified personnel for the sector. They help to build very deep and strategic connections between our university and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. In fact, it was a co-located Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientist, Gary Johnston, who bred the now famous Yukon Gold potato at the University of Guelph.
We are also pleased to see Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada establishing new programs that do show leadership, such as the agricultural greenhouse gas program.
We, and I suspect OMAFRA as well, are very interested in building further collaborations through co-locations and combined research initiatives through the growing forward program.
At the Ontario Agricultural College, we have a long history—over 137 years—of leadership in teaching, research, and service to help build the agriculture and food sector provincially, nationally, and internationally. Initially this meant building a college that was strictly focused on agriculture. After 137 years, our fundamental mandate has not changed, but the college has changed considerably to meet the broader and accumulating needs within that mandate. Where once we were just focused on agriculture, we now identify ourselves in four core areas: food, agriculture, rural communities, and the environment. I think our experience resembles Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's experience. Perhaps the science and innovation strategy in Growing Forward 2 can acknowledge this evolution and publicly claim an expanded role to provide national leadership on working to meet the rapidly accumulating, diverse and critical needs of society and the market.
Thank you.