Thank you.
My name is Lynn Grant. My family and I ranch in southwest Saskatchewan, near Val Marie. I want to thank you for the invitation to speak on behalf of Canada's 83,000 beef producers in regard to your conservation plan. As chair of the environment committee of our association, I can assure you that this is an area of great importance to cattle producers.
Farmers and ranchers are conservationists by nature. For us, it's a business essential to have sustainable production and management. It's not a luxury, it's an essential, and we have been practising it to the best of our ability and knowledge to date.
Ranchers are in a unique position, as we are able to own and operate dynamic, profitable businesses within a natural habitat. This habitat includes grasslands and pastures.
Grazing is essential for a properly functioning grassland ecosystem to remain healthy. Grasslands National Park, near my home, reintroduced cattle to the park after 20 years of excluding this major grazer. Their studies had shown a reduction in biodiversity and ecosystem function without the major grazer on the landscape. So eliminating cattle is not an answer; they are part of the solution.
Canada has 160 million acres of agricultural land. Approximately one-third of that, or over 50 million acres, is grass. That is a sizable acreage that we manage and can manage to the benefit of both our productive needs and the ecosystem's requirements.
These grasslands are among the most biologically diverse agricultural landscapes. They are an important part of the carbon ecosystem. A worldwide study by Gilmanov et al. in 2010 showed that non-forested ecosystems like grazing lands and croplands can exceed forests in net ecosystem carbon exchange. Today the importance of these remaining grass acres is escalating, as there is increasing pressure to convert the land to other agricultural and development uses.
In addition to the beneficial impact of beef production on conservation in Canada, the industry contributes about $26 billion to Canada's gross domestic product. Agriculture, especially grass-based agriculture, is part of the solution, not the problem.
There are three important areas for consideration as the development of the national conservation plan moves forward: firstly, research, knowledge transfer, and monitoring; secondly, recognition, not regulation; and thirdly, the importance of collaboration.
With regard to research, knowledge transfer, and monitoring, our effectiveness in maintaining and enhancing the sustainability of the land under our management is dependent not only on our intuition and inherent skills as land managers but also on the science that Canada's researchers have developed and must continue to develop. We recognize that the knowledge that got us here today must continue to evolve to take us effectively into the future. Continued expansion of our understanding of ecosystem functions is essential.
Many of our species are migratory and rely on healthy wintering grounds in other parts of the world. Our research studying interactions between agriculture and the environment needs to encompass both national and international perspectives. Research enables producers to make improvements to agricultural systems so that we can do a better job of profitable production while enhancing the ecosystem that we operate in.
This is especially important as land use competition increases. Improvements in productivity through applied production research and technology transfer are integral to maximizing production on the existing land base and minimizing the impact or need to disturb more environmentally sensitive landscapes.
While the use of grazing animals on a grassland landscape is essential for the ecosystem's health, we are also aware that the misuse of grazing can be detrimental to the health of the same resource. The problem isn't the tool; it's how the tool is applied. Ranchers need to be both profitable and knowledgeable to make correct management decisions.
Today's consumer is becoming increasingly aware of the attributes of the food they eat, yet the growing disconnect between consumers and food producers means that there is often a great misunderstanding of the production practices we use today. It is imperative that we measure our conservation efforts in a quantifiable manner so that we can recognize success, continually make improvement, and hopefully market these attributes to our global market.
The national conservation plan needs to take into consideration the importance of investments in research, knowledge transfer, and monitoring of these working landscapes. Financial support for these initiatives needs to be increased and needs to be long term and predictable.
We need recognition, not regulation. The conservation efforts of Canada's agriculture producers go largely unrecognized, despite the fact that prudent environmental management benefits the entire public. Continuous and vast areas of well-managed native and tamed grass are important for carbon sequestration, water quality, preservation of natural habitats, biodiversity, and grassland species. A study done on Canada's community pastures showed that the public value of this resources was pretty well equal to the direct grazing value. Currently that is not recognized on anybody's balance sheet.
Going forward, we in agriculture, as well as society as a whole, will need to develop new revenue streams for the grassland grazing ecosystem to remain competitive with other uses. If you don't value something or put a value on it, why would you expect someone to continue to provide it?
We encourage the government to explore opportunities to appropriately recognize and reward the role that land managers play in supplying environmental goods and services to the Canadian public. We would like to emphasize the fact that recognition and reward are significantly more effective in seeing positive impacts on working landscapes than are costly regulations. The regulatory approach taken by acts such as the Species at Risk Act and the Migratory Birds Convention Act place unwarranted liability on ranchers, which, in turn, acts as a disincentive to having the species on their operations. If these species are viewed as a potential liability to the rancher, they will always be at risk. We, and the bigger “we”, that is, society as a whole, need to develop ways to make these species an asset to everyone, especially the land manager.
As you begin planning for Canada's national conservation plan, we would like to stress the importance of the carrot versus the stick, as win-win programs and policies are more effective and efficient at achieving desired goals on these landscapes.
When we examine successful agricultural conservation programs, such as Cows and Fish, there is one obvious key to success, and that is collaborating with the primary land manager on the land. Finding common goals and objectives is imperative to achieving the sustainable outcomes we want. If the rancher is an integral part of the process for conservation, the success rate of the program will be much higher. This principle of collaboration is important at all levels of conservation, from grassroots programs to policy setting. As you move forward with the national conservation plan, we encourage you to collaborate with all stakeholders, work with existing successful entities and programs, and ensure that appropriate goals are set and that all stakeholders are equally invested in the goals and the desired outcomes.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that Canada's cattle producers are front-line stewards for the environment. It is important to support applied production research and research at the agricultural and environment interface, to develop and transfer the knowledge that will enable ranchers to continue to make positive contributions to society and to the environment, to work towards policies that reward positive contributions to the environment, and in all these activities to collaborate with the land managers who rely on the sustainability of our grassland ecosystems. Together we can continue to make positive contributions to Canadian agriculture, the Canadian environment, and our society.
Thank you for the opportunity to present to you. I look forward to your questions.