Evidence of meeting #88 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was water.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
I can start and then you can go?
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
We've mentioned that there are a few universities that are teaching it, and we are seeing that a lot of new farmers are interested in sustainable agriculture, whether it's organic all the way, or what have you. On the transition of farms, we're seeing a lot of people saying they will take over dad's farm if there's some sustainability component to it. Now, who's going to teach them? There are short-term funding proposals that exist to the end of the year through the prairie organic grain initiative, which has extension specialist services as part of a training program. But once these short-term funding solutions run out, then what? It's a constant struggle for us as an industry—and as a sector that deeply believes in our own education and success—to make sure that these resources are going to be sustainable.
Director, Canadian Organic Growers
In respect of small-scale agriculture and small-scale farmers, recent studies have shown that the majority of new entrants are female and have a university education. What we're looking for is alternative ways of educating these small-scale farmers, because most of the information they will require for their farms will not be gained at a university level. So we're looking at more alternative ways of learning and educating those new entrants.
Liberal
Jean-Claude Poissant Liberal La Prairie, QC
Okay.
I would like to ask you another question.
Are there easier crops? Be it vegetables, cereals or berries, are there products that adapt more easily to organic farming?
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
That's a good question.
Director, Canadian Organic Growers
To answer that question in the opposite direction, some of the more challenging crops would be those like corn, which may require a lot more nitrogen fertility. This can be done by using longer rotations. There are great crops like hemp, which is a tremendous crop that builds soil organic matter. It's more about the techniques used by organic farmers that would allow pretty much any crop to be grown.
Associate Director of Science Programs, The Organic Center, Canada Organic Trade Association
For larger-scale commodity crops such as corn, organic farmers often use varieties developed for conventional systems, because there hasn't been much research and investment in organic. This is another challenge they face—they're using a crop variety developed for a system completely different from an organic system.
Liberal
Jean-Claude Poissant Liberal La Prairie, QC
Okay.
One of the difficult aspects in just about every field of agriculture is recruiting the labour. Is finding labour a problem for you?
Is it the same with automation?
A lot of research has been done on conventional precision farming technologies. Is there any research in the area of organic farming with respect to mechanization?
Director, Canadian Organic Growers
In terms of labour, many of our small-scale organic farms have a human-scale approach. Therefore, they are able to find adequate labour. It's when you scale up that you're going to have a harder time finding adequate labour.
In terms of precision agriculture, we are starting to see an increase. As some of our farms get to a larger scale, you're starting to see equipment that collects the proper data to allow for precision agriculture. I can see how a farmer would be using the information that's gained from precision agriculture to hone in and properly make the best of the inputs they put into their farm.
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
I'll answer in regard to what attracts people to go into any type of career. It's money. There was a study done by Statistics Canada on the net operating income of organic farmers from gross farm receipts. This is your data that I'm sharing. There's a 68% higher income for people between $10,000 and $99,000. I'll go to the other extreme. Those over $1,000,000 in income, compared to their conventional counterparts, are making 18.9% more income. Yes, there's more labour required, but there's also more income, and that's drawing people towards organic.
Liberal
Jean-Claude Poissant Liberal La Prairie, QC
We often hear about crops without inputs, which is close to organic farming.
Could you tell us more?
In my industry, many growers start farming without using inputs. This adds value to their products. Is there a big difference between these two modes of production?
Director, Food Water Wellness Foundation, Canadian Organic Growers
I think when the soil is improved and healthy, then that's exactly when you can grow crops without inputs because the biology is actually taking care of the fertility that we normally put on when using fertilizer.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you very much for coming today. I have a very interesting question. It's something maybe you can educate me on.
I'm a pharmacist by profession, and one of the things that I did in my pharmacy is I expanded the scope of practice. It wasn't just pharmaceuticals but it was gluten-free grocery, some organic products, and some products.... We found that there were a lot of people who maybe weren't allergic to certain foods but who had an intolerance to certain foods.
One of the things I found when purchasing certain products.... They were labelled. Some labels said the product was gluten-free and it was certified as gluten-free. One of the things I had difficulty with, either as a result of sourcing or not being able to define clearly, was whether something was organic or not.
I know there's an organic standards association, but how strong is that? I want to get an idea of the strength of the testing or certification. People can say something is organic, but as an ordinary Canadian, what sort of confidence do we have that it is organic? As you know, there's a price differential between the products. I know for gluten-free there are certain manufacturers that we know have been certified in one way. However, one of the things I found, especially in procuring organic products, was that a lot of times I wasn't sure as to the certification or viability of a product. Can you just give us an idea of how the process works?
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
I'll answer this question. I did a presentation to AFC staff this morning.
The standards development process was voluntary up until 2009, and then our trading partners said we couldn't trade to Japan, the EU, and the U.S. if we didn't actually standardize the definition and get regulated by government. We are standards-incorporated reference in law. This is owned and enforced by the CFIA. This is a government initiative, which is why the industry is saying, we need to work in better partnership because this is your system that we're a part of and we're working on it together. Hopefully you believe in the enforcement of it because it's enforced by the CFIA.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
If I'm a producer or farmer of organic produce, then I would submit an application to the CFIA?
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
No. You would submit it to a certification body, which is a third party provider overseen by the CFIA. The CFIA manages the certification bodies to make sure they are performing their role, which comprises annual inspections, paper trail, traceability, sourcing all-organic, and making sure that if there are any fraudulent claims, they are followed up with.
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
They'll do the inspections, but ultimately, they'll report to CFIA anybody who is becoming suspended or decertified, and that's listed on the CFIA website.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you very much for that clarification.
I have a second question, and this is probably more about trade. I think the organic sector in Canada has a lot of potential, especially when we're dealing with trade regimes, either CETA or CPTPP. What advice would you give or what do you think is the potential now that you have an opportunity to sell to between a billion and a billion and a half people? You are selling in parts of the world where the agriculture regime may not be as stringent as it is here, so Canadian farmers really have an opportunity going forward with that.
Can you comment on that?
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
Yes. We work to represent the Canada organic brand internationally. There is a heck of a lot of export going on. I would say most of our trading partners have a more rigid regime than ours on zero tolerance of glyphosate or—
