Evidence of meeting #13 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was carbon.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
I will be extremely generous and allow Mr. Wanger to answer that question in 30 seconds because it interests me.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Oberland Agriscience Inc.
Yes, I'll answer that question quickly.
One of the challenges we have is how we add this frass to the fields. We're working with local agronomists now to figure out the formulation, and the best way to either broadcast spread or in-furrow the frass. That's one of the great things we are doing right now. We have a wide net, but we're really looking to target to get as much of this frass where it does the best.
Formulations and all that stuff are coming from R and D from all the major insect farms across Canada.
Bloc
Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
If you had a specific recommendation for the committee about investing in research, what would you say?
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Oberland Agriscience Inc.
One thing we have seen is that frass is a great way to add carbon back into the soil. It's really standardizing how we measure this. It's really opening up the idea about what crop species frass work best on.
We have several studies going on here with different crops, but we're going to have a limited resource. There are only so many insect farms in Canada, and we can only scale up so much.
Where do we target what I think is a valuable product, and what industry do we target that into? Would it be high-value crops out here in Nova Scotia, be it blueberries or apples, or in the Fraser Valley, or the high-value fruits in the Okanagan Valley, or potatoes? It has been shown to be incredibly good for potato growth, and so we look at the Prairies, and P.E.I. and New Brunswick—out here.
Where do we target and where do we get the best bang for our buck? I think that's where a lot of the research should be going right now.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Kody Blois
Thank you very much, Mr. Perron.
Mr. MacGregor, you have two and a half minutes.
NDP
Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Thank you, Chair.
I'll direct my question to Mr. Ammeter and the Canadian Canola Growers Association. In your opening remarks, you made mention of the fact that farmers will make the investments when they have confidence. I think the same rule applies to processors.
You've had a few interventions and back-and-forth with my colleagues on this. Regarding the goals that we have as a country in establishing the biofuels market, is there anything else you'd like to add about how we, as a committee, can best make recommendations to the federal government to help build that confidence and make Canada that world leader?
If there's anything else you wanted to expand on, I'll give you the time to do so now.
Chair, Canadian Canola Growers Association
One of the things is the transition, if you will, and the confidence in a transition. I'm thinking of discussions around using different types of material for my grain dryer. Currently, I use natural gas and it's a bit of a challenge when I'm taxed on it. It takes away my ability to make any kind of a switch, so that's a bit of a challenge. It doesn't work that well for me, to put it gently.
I don't know, Dave, if you want to contribute on that too.
Vice-President, Government and Industry Relations, Canadian Canola Growers Association
Sure, Mike.
In response to biofuels, it's a big opportunity for Canadian farmers, but I want to predicate that the announcements we've heard from Federated Co-operatives and others is that there are not yet shovels in the ground. They are predicated on getting the clean fuel regulations correct, which will be at CGII, Canada Gazette II, any time now.
At the farmer level, we still have outstanding concerns about the land use and biodiversity criteria for farmers. I'm hoping that we can continue.... Mike can grow his canola and sell it to a processor or grain elevator. That's really important. We've been kind of languishing while awaiting the announcement on how Canada is going to regulate gene editing. We understand that it's positive, but we've been waiting on announcements since November 2021. That's another key tool in that innovation tool box.
There are concerns about what's happening with the pest management regulatory agency and the government's approach to the regulation of crop protection products. There's not one thing. We could go on.
Canada is the global leader in canola. We control about 60% of the world's trade, but we need those innovations. We need a regulatory market that's predictable and timely, and we need science to be at the forefront of all of these decisions.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Kody Blois
Thank you, Mr. Carey.
Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.
That ends our panel.
I'm going to take a 30-second question. I don't do this often, but, Mr. Wanger, one of the questions that I had.... I've had the opportunity to see your facility, and I appreciate the work that you do.
You mentioned CFIA and the rules and regulations around human-consumed food. Right now, you are dealing mostly with agri-food-types of commodities, where there's excess waste food that is part of your feedstock.
As your company grows, and as those 25 companies in the country that you mentioned start to scale up, do you have a concern around feedstock in organics? How is that conversation going with CFIA around human food that could be consumed as well?
Answer in a minute, if you have a chance.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Oberland Agriscience Inc.
This is a challenge that we face. Our feedstock is the organics and by-products that come from grocery stores and producers. While there is a lot, it is a limited amount. What we are constantly trying to do is push the envelope to try to take more and more of the organics and divert them from the compost or landfill. For that, one of the challenges we have, for instance from the grocery industry, is the single-use plastics. This is something that is a real challenge. We have to pull them out of the products, using technologies, and often hand sifting. It makes it a challenge for us to take more of the organics.
One of the things as well, because we're such a new industry, is that up until recently, insects were something you were trying to keep out of your feedstock. We are the feedstock for a lot of these industries. CFIA is changing, but work with them to help the industry grow together, so that the industry and the regulations grow together.
I mentioned Europe. We should look to Europe. They're ahead of us in the regulations. I think ours is an industry that is looking to be guided or helped by the CFIA through the regulation process.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Kody Blois
Thank you very much.
Thank you to all the witnesses for their contribution today.
Colleagues, I will just remind you that we will not be meeting on Thursday, because that is the day the Minister of Finance will be tabling the government's budget, so I suspect your occupation and concerns will be elsewhere. We will be coming back when the House comes back.
The final thing I want to say is this is the last day for our clerk, Emma-Leigh Boucher.
I brought a little gift from Nova Scotia and I'll promote Nova Scotia wine while I'm at it . It's from the Annapolis Valley. This is a Planters Ridge, 100% Nova Scotia wine.
To any Canadians watching, pick up some Nova Scotia wine.
Maybe we'll have a round of applause for our clerk for all her good work.
[Applause]
We'll adjourn. Thanks.