Agriculture Committee on June 1st, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Wiens, could you conclude quickly, please? We are past the time.

[David Wiens]

As such, these practices continue to become an important part of Canada's sustainability strategy. It will be critical to develop recognized and science-based tools to adequately measure carbon sequestration in the soil.

Dairy farmers also participate in a variety of initiatives to help responsibly manage and recycle plastics used on farm. We work with Cleanfarms, a non-profit environmental stewardship organization. DFC is supporting these take-back programs and other local initiatives to help our farmers participate in the circular economy for agricultural plastics.

DFC also supports the further development of these kinds of initiatives in collaboration with government, particularly in more rural and remote areas that do not currently have access.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Wiens, unfortunately, I have to go to the question round. You might provide further information at that time.

We will now go to the first round of questions.

Mr. Lehoux, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses very much for being with us.

Mr. Wiens, you mentioned many very interesting things, but we discussed them very quickly. I'd like us to take the time to say more about some of them. For example, you talked about a significant 60% decrease in methane emissions. I understand that that the government is in the process of putting offsets in place, but the offsets don't recognize work already done.

Could you tell us a little more about that?

[David Wiens]

Thank you for that question.

Certainly, what has helped us reduce our methane emissions, in part, has been to increase our production per cow. Today we are producing considerably more milk with fewer animals than we have in the past. There are many reasons for that. Partly, it's genetics. Of course, we know that Canadian genetics are recognized around the world for the good-quality animals that come out of here. Also, there's so much focus on the way we feed our cows. As farmers, each one of us works with a ruminant nutritionist to develop the kind of diet for the cows that is very productive, that increases the production per cow. Of course, we focus on animal comfort, animal care. The kinds of facilities that cows are kept in today are quite luxurious compared with what was seen in the past. All of these things have contributed to a reduction in overall methane emissions.

I would say there's also the focus on particular feeds that actually create less methane emissions.

I'm not sure, Pierre, if you wanted to add to that.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I may ask Mr. Lampron if he has anything to add about that, but I could also continue with you, Mr. Wiens, on the “biodigester” issue. You said a lot of work and investment have been done, but that federal government support was lacking and that the federal government would have a role to play.

Have you ever approached the department about it?

[David Wiens]

We've had some discussions, but there's no agreement on how we're going to.... We're looking at different ways to encourage more biodigesters across the country. In some areas it's feasible, because the utilities in some provinces may offer a better return in buying back energy than other provinces. That will vary considerably.

I believe there have been some individual projects where grants have been made available for producers to make this possible, but it's not been across the board, so that more farmers could pursue that. There are still a lot of barriers that exist to our moving forward.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Lampron. Did you want to add anything about it?

[Pierre Lampron, President, Dairy Farmers of Canada]

I'm sorry I'm late. It's almost more tiring than a day of haying, all of this.

We don't have anything concrete, but clearly the government wants to move in that direction. To achieve its goals, which are the same as ours, I believe we will continue discussions, but we have nothing concrete yet. It seems like we're moving in the same direction, so we should find some common ground.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

All right.

Mr. Lampron, I'd like to hear from you about the practices that you and many farms in Canada already use, which make our agriculture contribute more to reducing emissions and protecting the environment.

[Pierre Lampron]

I'd be happy to share that.

I employ a young man who just graduated from university and is working hard in that respect. We've been planting trees for two years now. Last year we planted 2,000, and this year we planted about 1,000 trees. They serve as shelterbelts, they catch all kinds of things and they produce fruit for the birds.

Our farm is organic, so we do a lot of open houses and tours to encourage other farms to adopt organic farming practices. We belong to several agri-environmental groups and they help us adopt farming practices that are better for the environment, especially in terms of carbon sequestration.

Using the best practices we can is part of being a farmer. I believe we can be part of the solution.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Exactly, do you find that right now you're not part of the solution, in that the important work that's been done on this over the last 10, 15 or 20 years is not being recognized?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Please provide a quick response, Mr. Lampron.

[Pierre Lampron]

I feel we are partly to blame. Perhaps we didn't make our success stories well enough known, so we'll try to make up for it.

Many of the people I see here are working with us to help us showcase what we do. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Lampron and Mr. Lehoux.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you, Mr. Lampron, as I know we had some technical difficulties. We're happy to have you here.

We'll go to Mr. Louis for six minutes.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank all of the panellists.

It's only fitting, on World Milk Day, that I start with the dairy farmers.

I appreciate your being here today on this World Milk Day, where, as you said, we recognize milk as a global food. I appreciate that. I also appreciate some of the examples that you gave to lower your carbon footprint. I was specifically interested if you could expand on the feed that you're talking about. You're saying that particular feeds can create less methane emissions.

Can you expand a bit more on that?

I would leave it to either of you—I'm not sure.

I've known Mr. Wiens longer.

[David Wiens]

Thank you. I could certainly start on that.

One thing they're finding is that by having high-quality forages...corn silage, for example, is a feed that helps to reduce it—and also just by increasing the production. Our quotas are based on butter fat, for example, so we feed the cows in such a way that we can get the right balance between butter fat and protein so that it takes less milk to fill our quotas.

There are some really interesting things that are happening out there. It's really more in the developmental stages, but there are certain kinds of seaweed, for example, that are known to considerably reduce methane emissions in cattle. I think there are opportunities. Obviously, we don't all live by the sea, so we don't have access to it, but certainly we feed additives, right? So we'll feed things.... We have the basic diets, but what really boosts our production are things like wheat distillers, grain distillers, canola meal and all of these good things that create more efficiency.

Also, through research, I think it's really important to continue to look for those various kinds of plants and feed additives that would help us to further reduce our methane emissions. In a sense, we've begun that, and I think there's a lot more potential out there.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I appreciate that.

You mentioned biodigesters. I have a biodigester company here in my riding in Kitchener—Conestoga.

You mentioned that right now the associated costs are higher. You'll be happy to know that we were talking to department officials just in the last hour, and they're looking at ways of setting up a system of offset credits. They specifically mentioned biomass and biodigesters.

Are there other practices that you might be more incentivized to do if you could receive offset credits like that?

[David Wiens]

Yes. We see some things, for example, like the solar panels. We see some farms that have installed them and can operate completely with the panels, and then at times they can put energy back into the grid.

Those are all huge investments on the farm. The payback probably takes close to 15 years, so it's a significant investment. I think something like that is something that would be well received by farmers, and there's also potential with scaled wind turbines and so on, to farm size.

I think maybe Pierre would have some further comments on that. I think there are some things happening there too.

[Pierre Lampron]

I'd like to thank Mr. Wiens.

Regarding the grain issue, the solution lies in the ration calculation. You can choose different grains, but the key is to calculate them properly so that you don't waste anything. You mentioned research into forage quality. That's surprising.

I'd like to come back to the credits. Farms capture carbon, and they do that from generation to generation. All the projects done before 1977 have not been accounted for. Some farms have been doing it for several years in some forests and plantations. It would be appropriate to recognize what is already being done and not set a date that only takes new projects into account.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I don't have as much time as I'd like, but I would like to talk to Mr. Qualman.

I appreciate the reports, both “Tackling the Farm Crisis and the Climate Crisis” and “Imagine If....”. I really enjoyed them; they were great. We very briefly talked about low input and low emissions, and we talked a lot about tech solutions. However, I love that your reports are very agroecology-oriented.

Can you tell us about enhanced soil health and what kinds of things we can do to lower the nitrogen, in the very short time I have? Then maybe we'll set up a meeting after because I'd love to talk more.

[Darrin Qualman]

We really believe that soil health is key to reducing input use; increasing resilience, water, filtration and drought resistance; and maintaining yield, farm productivity and profitability as we move into a future where we have to use fewer inputs. As you may know, soil with a lot of organic matter and carbon absorbs more water and holds it. It is really a key thing as we move into a future where rainfall will be less predictable and more intense, with more drought and more floods. We think the way to make our farms more resilient so they maintain their output and profitability moving forward is to really focus on the health of the soil, because that's the key to our output.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Qualman.

Thank you, Mr. Louis.

Mr. Perron, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank our witnesses for being with us today.

I'd like to say a special hello to the dairy farmers on this World Milk Day.

I'd like to speak to Mr. Lampron.

You just mentioned that we should find a way to recognize what's been done in the past, as Mr. Lehoux pointed out. Environment and Climate Change Canada officials on the previous panel told us that this was an issue and that it didn't seem to be included in their plan for the time being.

In your opinion, would there be a way to measure farms' greenhouse gas emissions and compare them to an average, to determine whether they are performing well or not? While we may not be able to look at everything, would you have any solutions for the government in that respect?.

[Pierre Lampron]

Since most farms have some wooded land, essentially it's a matter of recognizing what trees, crops, pastures, forage fields and ground covers capture in carbon. In my opinion, carbon capture could be recognized in several ways.