Yes, I'll quickly do some cowboy math. For every 1% increase in organic matter in soils, farmers pull out of the air approximately 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide. I'll repeat that: For every 1% increase in soil organic matter, 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide go into the soil. In western Canada alone, 70 million acres, a 1% increase would be 1.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, if that were recognized by the government.
Farmers are doing a lot. Yesterday I went out to a farm and spent some time on the on-farm climate action fund, OFCAF. Did you know that the farmer I was dealing with would not qualify for any support? Do you know why? He is already doing soil testing, already doing split nitrogen application, already using nitrogen inhibitors and doing crop rotation. The work that the federal government wants us to do is already being done by farmers, but it's not being recognized.
It's far better for us to be given incentives, carrots rather than sticks, than to be told to reduce our nitrous oxide by 30% when we're already among the most highly efficient nitrogen farmers in the world.