Agriculture Committee on March 28th, 2022

[Jacques Nault]

It's an interesting question.

The technology that we've developed is a technology to measure soil organic carbon. We use laser technology. Like I said, we won the Indigo Ag carbon challenge in 2021.

At the end of the day, it's very simple. Mr. Affleck touched on this. Increasing soil organic carbon is a question of returning a lot of fibre and biomass back to the soil.

If I can jump in about your previous question about regenerative agriculture, basically the idea is designing farm systems that generate a lot of biomass, and the effect is an increase in soil organic carbon at the end. Our technology—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

My apologies, Mr. Nault and Madame Valdez. I even gave you a few extra seconds.

We are almost at time.

I would ask that if possible, Mr. Perron and Mr. MacGregor, you try to keep your questions to two minutes.

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

Mr. Chair, I'll ask my questions quickly.

Mr. Nault, in the last round of questions, we were figuring out a way to acknowledge the contribution of producers who have been innovators in the past. The argument that we shouldn't look far into the past no longer holds water.

I'll give you all the time that I have left.

[Jacques Nault]

The idea is to determine how we can compensate the farmers who are already performing well.

I don't have enough time to explain the process in detail. Basically, we form groups and share the current performance of the best farms with the farms starting their climate transition. In return, the farms starting their climate transition will make further gains in terms of increased carbon storage and greenhouse gas reductions. They'll share these gains with the farms that are already performing well. It's about sharing performances. The performance of the better farms helps to offset the performance of the weaker farms. It's like a mini cap‑and‑trade system.

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

Okay.

We can do that, and do it well.

I'll let you finish your explanation for Ms. Valdez.

In your opinion, should the federal government be involved in funding the organic standard?

[Jacques Nault]

It's absolutely essential. The organic standard enables organic agriculture producers to obtain recognition for their products and to keep their certification. The producers are already paying for the certification. They can't be asked to also cover the costs of updating the standard.

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

That's fine.

I would like you to elaborate on your explanations for Ms. Valdez.

[Jacques Nault]

I was talking about regenerative practices, which seek to increase soil organic matter. This organic matter plays four major ecological and systemic roles: water retention; erosion protection; pest protection; and the improvement of biodiversity. A healthy soil rich in biomass and organic matter increases soil biodiversity, a buffer in the fight against climate change.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Perron and Mr. Nault.

The last speaker, Mr. MacGregor, will have the floor for two minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Affleck, I want to continue on the line of questioning from where we left off.

With respect to two things, trying to get more carbon into the soil, and specifically making plants more resistant to extreme weather events like droughts, which we have seen in the Prairies, but also larger amounts of rainfall, what specific characteristics of plants are we trying to develop here? Is it as simple as trying to find a variety which is leading to a bigger root mass or roots going deeper into the soil? I'm curious. Can you expand a little bit more on that?

[Ian Affleck]

If you take droughts, for example, it could be the way that the root system grows; it can also be the way that the leaf responds to the high temperatures. Closing the stoma loses less moisture out of that.

Then there are also two elements: one is drought resistance, but then there is water efficiency. If you're under an irrigated system, you have to use less water in order to get as much output, or just straight-up drought resistance that can handle the heat and still provide you with a decent crop at the end of the day, which kind of stabilizes your food production across the board.

All the time, as you're using things like gene editing, etc., to benefit conventional plant breeding, you're moving those yield sticks forward, 2%, 3%, 4% a year. That's the compound interest that brings us the efficiencies we talked about earlier in terms of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions per pound of food, if you will.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much, Mr. MacGregor.

Thank you, witnesses, for your testimony here today. I'll reiterate what I said to the first panel. Thank you for your leadership in agriculture and thank you for making the time to help enlighten and engage us on a really important topic.

With that, colleagues, I will bid you adieu.

I have one final word, for our interpreters. Thank you so much for the work you do. We certainly appreciate it.

We'll see all of you back here on Thursday.

Take care.

The meeting is adjourned.