Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, committee members, for your time.
I'm very pleased to be here today to speak on behalf of the Canola Council of Canada to share how the canola industry is contributing to clean growth and climate change mitigation for Canada.
Before I start, I would like to describe the Canola Council of Canada.
The Canola Council of Canada is a value chain organization representing the industry: the 43,000 canola growers, the seed developers, the processors who crush the seed into oil for humans and meal for livestock feed, as well as exporters who export canola for processing at its destination.
Canola is a Canadian-made crop. The canola industry contributes $26.7 billion to the economy every year and ranks the highest in farm cash receipts.
Our industry is working very hard to meet the world's growing appetite for healthy oils and protein. Keep it coming 2025 is our industry's plan to increase demand for canola oil, meal and seed, and to meet this demand through sustainable production and yield improvement, achieving 26 million metric tons of production by 2025. With this plan, our industry is well positioned to contribute to the federal government's $75-billion export target and the recently released agri-food economic strategy table target of $85 billion by 2025.
However, the future for Canadian canola will not be bright if it is only about increased production. We must also be a partner in achieving society's environmental goals like preserving soil and water health, improving air quality, and maintaining biodiversity. That's why in my remarks today I'll outline the five bold environmental targets of the canola industry and explain how our industry is working to achieve them. These are bold targets that recognize the importance of leadership, leadership for the environment and leadership for greenhouse gas emission reductions.
Canadian farmers over the years have adopted numerous practices to improve their environmental footprint. Our 2025 sustainability targets complement this progress while charting a path towards continual improvement.
The first goal is to use less energy. Using less energy per bottle of canola oil is something the canola industry is making good progress on over time, but we're not done yet. As we increase yield on every acre of canola, we will increase production and we'll be able to use 18% less fuel for every bottle of canola oil.
The second goal is to increase land use efficiency. When we grow more on every acre, we're making more efficient use of the land, and this can have remarkable impacts over time. Our goal is to increase production without bringing more land into canola production. This means that by 2025 we'll achieve a 40% reduction in the amount of land that we grow one tonne of canola on. We'll do this by targeting our agronomy and research efforts, which the council executes in conjunction with the industry, to take cutting-edge science from the lab, from the science bench, and transfer this knowledge to farmers so they can implement these practices in their fields.
The third goal is about sequestering more carbon in the soil, something I understand the committee has talked a lot about. By sequestering more carbon in the soil, we will put five million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the soil every year. That's the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road. We're very excited about what the canola plant can do to take carbon dioxide out of the air, produce healthy oil for people and protein for animals, and turn those greenhouse gases into organic matter that helps enrich our soils. Recent research by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientist Brian McConkey has highlighted how canola is the workhorse of Canadian crops when it comes to sequestering carbon.
We're not done yet. One of the research projects that we as an industry are funding is looking at how the canola plant can be adapted to sequester even more carbon.
Research that the Canola Council is funding is looking at how we can improve starch biosynthesis. It's a technique that has already been used to increase yields by about 400% in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We're really excited about what this research can do, what it can do for canola yields and what it can do to take carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into organic matter that enriches our soils.
The fourth goal is about improving soil and water health. We're planning on improving soil and water health by having 50% of canola production under 4R nutrient stewardship by 2025. Nutrient stewardship is about putting the right crop nutrients or fertilizer in the right place, in the right amount and at the right time. The agronomy team of the Canola Council is committed to helping farmers make the best use of precision agriculture and to use new technology that makes fertilizer more stable.
Our fifth and final goal of the industry is to safeguard and protect biodiversity by keeping the 2,000 beneficial insects in the canola canopy and surrounding natural habitat. It may come as a surprise to committee members that farmers are keenly interested in having lots of insects in their canola, the beneficial insects, that is. Hopefully, members have had a chance to see the beautiful canola fields in July, when the sea of yellow flowers attracts pollinators, like honey bees and other sorts of bees and insects, to that canopy because of the quantities of nectar and pollen that canola produces. Our industry wants to protect these beneficial insects and maintain the biodiversity in and around our canola fields.
While there are beneficial insects, there are also insects that can destroy a canola crop in as little as 36 hours. These insects destroy the crop for the farmer and for all of the other insects that may enjoy that crop. To control these insects, the canola industry requires access to safe crop protection products. The Pest Management Regulatory Agency of Health Canada ensures that crop protection products are safe, but unfortunately, the current approach to risk assessment does not consider how their decisions impact beneficial insects.
We would like that the PMRA risk evaluation process be broadened to consider both the risks and the benefits of the products they review. For example, broader environmental benefits from targeted crop protection products, like seed treatments, help protect the ecosystem and help maintain biodiversity in the canola canopy. These benefits should be considered by PMRA's risk evaluation process because safe and timely access to crop protection products is required to achieve our sustainability targets and maintain those 2,000 beneficial insects in and around the canola canopy.
I'd like to conclude my remarks by commenting on what the canola industry needs from the pan-Canadian framework to remain globally competitive. My colleague Rick will cover what's important to growers and what's possible with the clean fuel standard. I will focus my remarks on the processing sector.
For Canada to have a significant processing sector, we must remain a competitive place to invest and to operate facilities. Otherwise, our processing plants will go to other countries and we will ship our raw product and our jobs to somewhere else.
The output-based pricing system is very positive, but it needs to be designed carefully so that a trade-exposed sector like ours, which exports 90% of what it produces, remains competitive.
Regulations must be designed carefully to balance carbon pricing with competitiveness for all canola processors. It's very important that we take the time to get the design and implementation right.
In closing, the canola industry is working towards a bright and sustainable future. It will be a bright future, with more jobs, more prosperity and a future with improved environmental outcomes. We're really excited about how clean and sustainable growth can transform Canada.
Thank you. I look forward to answering your questions.