Agriculture Committee on Jan. 31st, 2018

[Fawn Jackson]

There has been a very large undertaking to join the conservation and agriculture communities, because there's a growing awareness. As Andrea mentioned, when there are more cows, there are more grasslands, more habitat for species at risk, and more carbon stored in the grasslands.

There are a number of initiatives under way. I know that Ducks Unlimited is extremely supportive of working with cattle producers on a number of different initiatives. For example, they do some extension work. They do some easement work. They have some land purchase programs, whereby land is put back into grasslands. As far as I understand it, they purchase cropland, put it back into grassland, and then put it back on the market with a no break/no drain easement on it.

There is an initiative called the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, and I am very fortunate to get to work with them. We have membership from the World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Nature Canada, and Ducks Unlimited. There are a number of different projects under way at the CRSB to help build those relationships and that work between the conservation and the ranching and farming communities.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I'm not sure if you're aware, but last year when I spoke to Ducks Unlimited they were conducting a study on the impact that wetlands have on carbon sequestration. That was in partnership. I've walked around it; I've seen it with my own eyes. They use a gate system to ensure that beef graze part of the land and then move over once that part of the land is grazed. It's all very sustainable.

I'm just curious to find out if that study on the carbon sequestration and the role that wetlands play is available now.

[Fawn Jackson]

I'm not aware of the Ducks Unlimited study, but the Canadian roundtable has done work. There's also work at the University of Alberta. BCRC also has some work. I'd be happy to connect with contacts at Ducks Unlimited and get back to you.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Okay, and I think your colleague wants to speak.

[Andrea Brocklebank]

There's been data gathered for many years on carbon sequestration on grasslands. Researchers were gathering the data a long time ago.

For a long time, though, I think we were focused on production, to be honest with you. What we understand very much now, though, is well-managed grasslands. Grazing them continuously is actually better than just letting them stand, because it rejuvenates them. We're starting to understand that. I think one of the biggest things about forage and grassland research is that what happens in Manitoba can be very different from what happens in B.C. and Alberta. There are just different climatic conditions and different ranges.

What we're trying to do under the next beef science cluster is to do a better regional analysis as to carbon sequestration currently and what the best practices to maximize carbon sequestration across these different rangelands are. Given that the soil conditions are different and the climatic conditions are different, what you recommend in Manitoba may be very different. We are working very much in partnership with the researchers across this country and also with groups like Ducks Unlimited, which have their own research under way.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

That's great.

We had a previous witness, Casey, from the national feeders' association, I believe, who was talking about some of the trade-offs that consumers have to understand, such as grass-fed beef versus grain-fed beef. Can you talk to me about some of the developments that are happening in that area, and about the role that government can play to inform consumers on some of these trade-offs that they might have to make if they put more emphasis on the environment or more emphasis on, I don't know, animal care, for instance?

[Andrea Brocklebank]

I think the important part to emphasize for grain-fed beef production is that in terms of the current production system in Canada, 80% of the animal's lifetime is spent consuming forage. There's this perception that the grass part is a small part, but it's not. It's a very significant part, even in our current production system, and there is a matter of taste preference by some for grass or grain, so we should provide both.

In terms of the extensive nature of the system, I think what we understand is that we tend not to focus on whether it's either-or, because what we know is that we can continue to make incremental improvements in both areas. We've done that in terms of reducing the greenhouse gas and the water footprints at feedlots and for cow-calf, and likewise in terms of our animal welfare measurements. A lot of the focusing we've done is really on just trying to communicate the overall safety and healthfulness of beef overall, and then also, in terms of the production system, maximizing both. I think we recognize, too, that in certain areas feedlots do help.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Brocklebank.

Thank you, Mr. Drouin.

Real farmers jump out of taxis and walk all the way. We're certainly glad to have you here, Mr. Bonnett. Are you alone? Oh, you have your partner also, Mr. Black.

[Ron Bonnett, President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture]

Yes, he's also with me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

It's quite nasty out there from what I hear.

[Ron Bonnett]

It is, and apparently cabs aren't running that quickly. We decided we better go walking.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

That's great. We're glad you made it. The timing is fine. If you're not too out of breath, we'll give you the floor and you can give your presentation. You didn't miss a step.

Go ahead, Mr. Bonnett.

[Ron Bonnett]

That sounds good. Thanks again for the opportunity to present. It's good that I got my exercise before I came here.

First of all, I think looking into some of the challenges of climate change is very important. We have a written presentation that will be circulated to people, but I wanted to cover off some of the main points we have.

I know you have had a number of witnesses who have spoken to you in regard to some of the conditions agricultural production will need to adapt to in light of climate change, so I'm going to focus my comments on what we see as the major needs for agriculture producers in this changing climate.

Let me start by saying that farmers are inherently adaptive. We have a long history of embracing innovation through technology, education, and best management practices to improve environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This has led us to a strong record of continuous improvement and has made us one of the most sustainable producers of agricultural products in the world.

We have a need to understand, in greater detail than is presently available in many agricultural areas, how the climate will be changing. In fact, we still have growing areas in Canada that are not covered by weather radar. Understanding the changing climate will support agricultural producers who produce specific commodities or varieties best suited to their local agronomic and environmental conditions.

It should be noted that many of us have already made changes in response to the changing climate. I myself am growing varieties of crops that were originally developed far south of where I farm in northern Ontario.

Recently, much of the political dialogue and investment has focused on climate change mitigation at the expense of adaptation. As agricultural producers, we are concerned about the climate change impacts that are affecting us with changing precipitation patterns, increased variability, and more extreme weather events, including precipitation, drought, heat, or cold.

These lead to changing pest pressures, as we can no longer rely on cold winters as a natural pest deterrent; changing range patterns of local species; new invasive species; heat stress on farm animals; new growing regions; new varieties; and new crops. These pressures have all had an impact on soil and water conservation. In order to maintain resilience, we need a better understanding of the most appropriate adaptive actions relevant to our own operations.

British Columbia, for example, has made significant inroads in building adaptation within the agriculture sector through the BC Agriculture and Food Climate Action Initiative, which is jointly developed and administrated with the agricultural industry. This program has conducted regional workshops that have brought together producers to develop adaptation priorities relevant to their own operations, local environments, and known expectations of the impact of climate change. This type of approach has led to effective and efficient tools and suggestions for improving the capacity for adaptation and resilience in their operations.

We need to build on this example so producers in other regions have similar access to this type of education. I know Manitoba will be releasing a report soon on adaptation efforts in its area.

We need governments to follow up with incentives and other supports necessary to take these adaptive actions. Leveraging best management plans through the environmental farm plan is one potential avenue to do so. I can speak from experience as I've used this program to access cost-shared funding for solar-powered watering systems for our cattle. This zero-emissions technology protects watershed quality by keeping cattle out of streams, which results in improved water quality and reduced soil erosion. There are many great examples like this that simply need the right incentives to spur adoption.

Adaptation needs to be mainstreamed into regular business decision-making for producers. However, we should recognize that in the short term adaptive actions that build resilience can sometimes introduce an element of redundancy and increased cost of production.

Adaptive investments can be difficult to make with thin margins, uncertainty over trade agreements, and rising costs from other government policies. As returns on investments for adaptation are often somewhat uncertain and not realized in the short term, we believe there's a role for governments to play in supporting the industry. In order to move quickly on adaptation, we need to develop concrete, specific actions that are supported by a strong outreach and educational component and that are relevant to the location and operations of agriculture producers.

This also includes new investments in research in order to improve modelling of the impact of climate change and on genetics in order to develop new varieties suitable to what our climate is and will be, not based on a historical average. Productivity improvements through genetics can also greatly reduce the amount of emissions per unit of product and may be one of the most tangible pathways to producing more food, fuel, and fibre for a growing and more affluent global population while also reducing emissions. We see the need to take a more holistic approach through climate-smart agriculture. This approach recognizes equally the need to increase yields through sustainable intensification, the mitigation of the impact of climate change, and the implementation of adaptation ideas.

Multi-stakeholder groups such as the agriculture adaptation working group, which is a member of NRCan's adaptation platform, have the scope to explore the issue, but not the support from federal government in order to conduct the research and analysis needed. We also need to conduct further analysis on whether we have the right insurance products available in a changing climate. This includes ensuring that we are taking climate change into account in the ongoing business risk management review discussions to build an adaptive suite of public risk management programs.

In conclusion, our key recommendations are to work with producers in partnership to set research priorities; produce and disseminate the right tools to make the right adaptation decisions; inspire changes in management practices through incentives and program support; implement a cross-sector strategy to support a sustainable and resilient food system; and, invest in ecological goods and services programs to incentivize adaptation and address water quality and quantity.

We recognize that Canadian agriculture is a strategic sector of the economy that requires strategic investments in order to achieve our full potential of providing low-carbon food and agricultural products to an expanding global population while adapting to the impacts of climate change.

I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Bonnett.

Welcome, Mr. Straathof. You probably went through the same thing as your fellow seatmate there, so thanks for joining us. If you're ready, you can go into a seven-minute opening statement.

[Tony Straathof, Board Member, National Farmers Union]

First I'll apologize for showing up late, but it was quite the storm.

[Ron Bonnett]

We did too.

[Tony Straathof]

I'm going to do just a brief introduction first. I'm going to reach into the knowledge that I have from a number of projects that I've been working on over the last few years.

I was a contributor to the Ontario soil health strategy. I'm a member of the prison farm advisory panel. I provided a lot of input into the Ontario strategy to address climate. That includes the carbon tax and the rest of the subsequent regulations that are coming about.

I've attended meetings with the International Joint Commission, dealing mostly with Lake Erie, but they focus on all the watersheds that cross the two boundaries. I've participated a lot in the sessions leading up to the development of the Canada agricultural partnership for Canadian agriculture policies, which are coming in this year.

This is just background that I am using to develop my thoughts for today.

First of all, I would like to bring forth a bit of background so that you can understand where we're going to go. If we know where we are now, then we know how to develop a plan for where we're going.

A few years ago, and I think it was in 2014, Ontario was producing 165 million tonnes of carbon equivalent greenhouse gases. Of that 165 million, Ontario was sequestering 16.5 million, 10% of the carbon equivalence that was being produced.

Agriculture conceivably can double the amount of carbon that it's currently sequestering—agriculture in Ontario only. Those are the figures I have. When these numbers were established, Ontario at that time was sequestering 0.5 to 0 .7. Even if Ontario doubles the capacity to sequester carbon, it is still only 1% of the total carbon that's being produced.

I realize that this session is strictly on developing a plan for mitigating climate change, but we have to realize where we are first before we can develop a successful plan that can measure how we can mitigate it.

Carbon sequestration in the soil is like adding water to a leaky bathtub. The more you put in, the more it will go out. The thing about carbon sequestration or greenhouse gases is that the more you put in, the faster it goes out as well. We have micro-organisms, we have fungi, we have bacteria that are constantly eating that organic carbon as it's coming in.

Even if we attempt to sequester carbon, which is almost impossible in getting to the level that we want, meeting what Ontario is producing, or even meeting what Canada is producing, we really need to see what we can do to effectively reduce the impact of these events that we're seeing now with the climate changing.

I think what we need to focus on is the soils. If we can have good, healthy soils, they will absorb more water in the case of an extreme weather event, and they'll retain more water in the case of a drought.

I'd like to talk a little about the extreme weather events that we are going to see. This past summer I believe I counted three events of over 100 millimetres of rain at one time. It used to be that 35 millimetres was an exceptional weather event.

We're seeing that the jet stream is stalling as it's moving from west to east. That means more precipitation for longer periods. That means also longer dry spells.

The key to mitigating these extreme weather events is soil.

Ron talked a lot about practices to enhance the soil capacity. We're talking about no-till; increasing buffer zones in water courses to reduce the runoff, to slow the runoff; forest cover; tree lines. But the key, the big thing here, is knowledge.

We have to know what practices we can employ to reduce the transfer of nutrients into the water courses, whether it's soil erosion, whether it's the nutrients in the soil. The way to do that is to increase the soil's organic matter, the carbon in the soil.

Enhancing the soil's capacity to mitigate the effects of extreme weather events needs to have an increase in soil carbon. It requires more energy, not less. We're seeing carbon taxes being imposed not only on all participants in our economy, but farmers as well. However, farmers need more energy, not less, and they need an encouragement to enhance these soils' capacity to mitigate the changes in extreme weather events. We're seeing the carbon taxes as more of a stick than a carrot. If farmers are going to grow your carrots, they need carrots. We need more encouragement and a lot less discouragement. We need the methods and the knowledge to improve the soil.

I want to talk a little about—and this is where it ties into my previous experience—

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Straathof, I'm going to have to cut you off here. It's very interesting, but we want to get to some of the questions, and we're up to seven minutes.

[Tony Straathof]

I'm sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I'm sure you'll have the opportunity with the questions to go back to your notes.

We already started the round. We're now at Mr. MacGregor, for six minutes to the whole panel.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Ms. Brocklebank, I'll start with you and Ms. Jackson.

I have in my hands the January 22, 2018, edition from the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. A section here identified water as a precious resource. I saw that you've highlighted that you're mindful of and focusing on reducing the water footprint of the Canadian beef industry. That's really excellent to hear.

With the increasingly hot summers we have and the weather extremes that are leaving droughts in many regions of the country, which we know leads to breeding issues and reduced weight gain in beef cattle, how do you navigate the competing realities of weather extremes affecting herds while reducing your footprint? Can you put that in the context of this study, where we're looking to ultimately make a recommendation to the federal government on how we help here in this committee?

[Andrea Brocklebank]

For the study being referenced, we've measured that between 1981 and 2011, the beef industry has reduced its water footprint by 17%. For each kilogram of beef, we use 17% less water. Those gains were achieved through increased efficiency in animal health and reproduction, improved crop yields, growth weights, slaughter weights, those types of things. I think that also speaks to the fact those improvements in productivity are really important and play a significant role when things like drought stress impacts our industry. If you have more resilient forages and strong management practices, you're better able to manage through those situations in your grasslands. It's still not easy. I'll profess that two dry years in our area meant that most of the cattle that stay on our place until September left in July. That also points to the fact that cattle producers have to be flexible in their decision-making, which very quickly changes based on things. At certain points you have to manage for the long term, which means keeping your grass healthy for the next year.

I think what we're cognizant of in overall reductions is the route we're on to increase productivity is exactly the route to help deal with those issues. We just need to continue to do it: increase productivity, in the varieties of grass and grain we grow to feed the cattle, but also in the overall genetics of an animal. We recognize significant genetic variation across beef cattle. If we can reduce that and increase efficiency, we have tremendous opportunity.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

That's fantastic to hear.

When you look at the prairies leading right up to the Rocky Mountains, and the fact that climate change affects the amount of water in the glaciers and the runoff from them, what's the long-term trend in how runoff in the spring means you might have less water to work with, which affects the watersheds of the surrounding regions?

[Andrea Brocklebank]

Keep in mind, especially in that area, that the majority of cattle production occurs in non-irrigated regions, so we're depending on grasses and what's there. What's there and how we manage it is the biggest thing and the biggest question.

I think what we are aware of is that there are certain regions where crop production has become highly risky due to climate variability, and as a result, that land is being converted to grass. That could be perceived as an opportunity for our industry, but it also shows the sensitivities of these lands, and you have to manage them very carefully. The degradation of two years of drought can take 10 years to recover, so that's the important part. It's not just that once the drought is over, cattle producers can increase stocking rates and move on. It takes significant time.

I think the biggest thing we're trying to do with producers, through research and also the extension work that we work with government on, is to help fund tools for them to understand the best management strategies on an ongoing basis, because that is changing what they're doing and how they're doing it.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you.

Mr. Straathof, I was really glad to hear your opening statement on the importance of soil. My wife and I have a little three-acre property. We're on a bit of a hill, and we get incredible runoff every winter on Vancouver Island. We followed the contour lines and built swales, and we've noticed that does tremendous things for retaining the water over the drier summer months. I'm really glad to hear your expertise in that field.

I know you kind of ran out of time, so could you just expand a little bit more on what kind of carrots we should recommend rather than the sticks? I just want to allow you a bit more time so I can get your thoughts on that, please.