Thank you for the opportunity to present to you today. I'm Andrea Brocklebank, and I'm joined by Dr. Reynold Bergen. We're both with the Beef Cattle Research Council.
The Canadian beef industry is a significant contributor to Canada's environmental goals. Canadian grasslands sequester the carbon emissions from more than three million cars annually, benefit biodiversity and produce high-quality protein from low-quality land and feed that often can't be used by humans. Producing one kilogram of Canadian beef generated 15% less greenhouse gas and used 17% less water in 2011 than 1981. Building on this, the beef industry has set ambitious goals for sustainability for 2030, which include a 33% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, sequestering 3.4 million more tonnes of carbon annually and preserving the remaining grasslands and ecosystem services they support.
Industry-driven research and innovation are critical to accomplishing these goals. Here are a few examples. Wildfires are destructive to wildlife, humans and the economy, and they release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Dr. Fraser's team at Thompson Rivers University is studying how strip logging and integrating forage, cattle and trees can increase both forage and tree growth while reducing wildfire risks. Alternating forage strips increase plant diversity, produce more forage for cattle and wildlife, tend to sequester more carbon and provide a firebreak. The recent documentary Too Close to Home demonstrates how cattle are increasingly viewed as a way to reduce the risk of wildfires.
The northern Great Plains is one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. The Nature Conservancy of Canada estimates that more than 70% of Canada's prairie grasslands have been lost to cultivation, urbanization and development. In Alberta, 83% of the original grassland is gone and in Manitoba, 99% of the tall grass prairie ecosystem is gone. Remaining grasslands survive because of cattle.
An Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute study found that most birds and mammals do just as well or better on cattle pastures as they would in a natural setting. Wildlife need to move and the loss of grasslands destroys their natural corridors. Another study is revealing how continued conversion of pasture to cropland will slowly squeeze wildlife out of southern and central Alberta until only a narrow corridor remains along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Understanding these impacts is important to inform policies that encourage producers to preserve these ecosystems, which do much more than retain vast amounts of soil carbon.
Industry is also focused on quantifying the environmental benefits of using cattle to upcycle food and feed waste. Increasing feed and forage productivity is further enhancing producer sustainability and carbon sequestration. Feed additives and other animal health technologies are key to increasing productivity while reducing our environmental footprint.
Maintaining this momentum and accelerating future improvements will require investment in research and extension. Innovation is a long game. It requires consistent long-term funding. Our industry understands this and has more than quadrupled our investments in research through the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-off, but government partnership is key.
The federal government has launched several research programs related to the government's climate goals. This is positive, but adding short-term programs with diverse priorities does not compensate for declining investment in long-term applied research. Despite the success of the agriscience clusters, federal funding has been spread across more sectors. Demand has increased but funding has not. Government-to-industry funding ratios have declined, reducing the number of projects industry can support to advance our shared goals.
Current research funding programs are five years or less, but it often takes much longer to reach practical application or a market-ready technology. Short-term projects aren't always easily renewed due to shifting priorities in funding. This significantly impairs the long-term data collection necessary to inform sound environmental programs and policies. Research expertise and infrastructure are also critical. Fiscal pressures mean that universities are not replacing retiring researchers, leaving gaps in our capacity. Core institutional funding for agriculture needs to be rejuvenated to hire researchers and bolster infrastructure.
In closing I would like to summarize. The Canadian beef industry is a significant contributor to Canada's environmental goals, but we need to focus on the maintenance of existing grasslands, appropriate valuation of ecosystem services provided and continuing to enhance the overall sustainability of the industry.
Industry-driven research and innovation are critical to addressing all of these things and achieving the 2030 government and industry goals. This will require more government and industry investment that focuses on research capacity, infrastructure and longer-term consistent program funding.
Thank you.