Thank you, Tia.
Thank you all for this opportunity.
The Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada is the national leader and facilitator of science related to organic in Canada. Our primary role is to lead the national organic science cluster program in collaboration with the Organic Federation of Canada.
Today I'll briefly introduce how the science of organic agriculture contributes to increasing environmental sustainability and improved business risk management, which ultimately can lead to high public trust.
We need to recognize that agriculture is multi-functional. It goes beyond just being a business case. Our current science cluster includes over 200 scientists working on projects at 36 institutions across Canada. What is clear from research in Canada and from around the world is that production practices that are emphasized within organic agriculture can contribute to addressing many of the issues that our country faces, as well as around the world, including climate change, biodiversity, water quality, and soil conservation.
Organic standards specifically emphasize practices that maintain a healthy soil, and healthy soils are critical for organic farming systems to maintain productivity and sustainability. That's why organic farmers pay particular attention to this. Healthy soils hold more carbon, which is helping to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. They help to reduce pressure from drought or excess water, which is a common issue in agriculture these days. Healthy soils also have an abundance of micro-organisms in them that hold nutrients in the soil and cycle them so that they're available for future crops and prevent them from being lost from the ecosystem and contaminating water supply.
The benefits of expanding crop rotations are widely recognized by organic and non-organic scientists alike, but in organic agriculture, farmers are heavily dependent upon crop rotations to build healthy soils, minimize pest pressure, and promote biodiversity. This means that organic farmers are strategically designing the sequence of crops grown on a field to maximize the efficient use of nutrients, to minimize risk from weeds, insects, and diseases, and to promote income stability.
Nitrogen fertilizers are an essential part of non-organic agriculture to achieve really high yields, but in organic farming systems we don't have access to these nitrogen fertilizers. We rely on manure and legumes like alfalfa and peas to capture the nitrogen naturally from the atmosphere. This nitrogen accounts for about 50% of the energy costs in crop production in conventional agriculture. Replacing that nitrogen by using legumes and manures, and recycling those nutrients is really important, and it can contribute substantially to climate change emissions.
Perennial legumes like clover and alfalfa are really important, and they can achieve these benefits, as well as add diversity to the landscape and build soil quality. As an international leader, Canadian agriculture should be constantly endeavouring to improve practices and minimize the risk and the burden to society. This is essential for maintaining public trust.
Organic agriculture is a model of production that is developing unique solutions that benefit all of agriculture. For the next policy framework, I would encourage programs that support science related to soil health and crop rotations; long-term studies; programs that transfer the science of agriculture to practice, so taking that science and translating it into something that can be used; research that quantifies and compares the carbon balance in whole agriculture systems; incentive programs that encourage the use of legumes; perennial forages; and cropping systems that have long rotations. We also encourage policies that encourage transparency as to where the agricultural issues are in the science and practice that are proactively addressing these issues.