First of all, there are a number of pieces the other witnesses have mentioned that I'd like to just touch on.
First of all, I have two public exits under my belt. They're both Canadian companies—both brilliant companies bought by U.S. companies. We have all sorts of innovation in the Canadian agriculture and agtech sector. I would echo Mr. Burany that there is this big gap right now between conception and basically proving an idea and scaling it, and we can't seem to get that kind of traction in Canada.
Point number two is that we, in agriculture, need phosphorous. Phosphate is critically important for the production of crops in agriculture. We should be supporting that initiative that he's working on, because it's vitally important to the security of Canada, if not North America. It would ensure lasting supplies of phosphorous, which is a critical ingredient in both agriculture and the industry in the electrification sector.
Now, on the agricultural side, the colleague from the United States said that we should just use crop residues. I agree with that. However, it comes with a caveat. That caveat is that 1% of organic matter equals 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The only way to increase sequestration of carbon dioxide in soils is through reduced tillage and the decomposition of the residue from crops into the soil organic manner. There are some places where you can burn biomass from crops, but it is not a large-scale solution.
The final thing I wanted to touch on is technology. There's all sorts of talk about agriculture getting a black eye and about agriculture being a problem. Agriculture is one of the few industries that can actually remove carbon dioxide through sequestration in soils, but we also have several mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture, including nitrification inhibitors to reduce the amount of nitrous oxide from fertilizer. These are technologies such as sectional control or variable rate technology that allow us to put fertilizer on more precisely.
You have to remember that many of the policies that are going on in Canada right now are punitive to Canadian farmers. Canadian farmers pay a carbon tax on the machinery they buy to grow the crops. They pay a carbon tax on the fuel necessary to put the crops in the ground, spray the crops and harvest the crops. They pay a carbon tax on the crop inputs and the fertilizer that are used. They pay a carbon tax on grain drying, because you guys can't agree on passing that legislation. They pay a carbon tax on hauling the grain to the elevator, and then all of the processors pay a carbon tax all the way through. This is something that our friends across the line in the United States have none of, so Canadian farmers in agriculture are differentially disadvantaged.