Thank you for the question.
One of the things I conduct research on is the water footprint for cattle, whether it's providing water for them for drinking or water for the feed for the animals, and then also making sure we dispose of waste appropriately.
With rapid climate change, what worries me about climate change more than other things are what Jim Bruce described as “the raiser”, which is water, the extremes of drought and flooding. Our farmers fluctuate between flood and drought, sometimes in the same year within the same province, but the story in the last year has been extraordinary drought. We're in a North American drought. In Canada, it extended from Vancouver Island into southern Quebec and even a bit into the Maritimes.
This week in southern Alberta there was a massive dust storm—in February. This is unprecedented. If you go back to the dirty thirties, they don't talk about winter dust storms, but this is what we're seeing now.
We have a project called Agricultural Water Futures, which is studying the water footprint of various crops. We're looking at new crops that are spreading northwards as the climate warms and what their water use and requirements are. We're also looking at how to manage soils better and how to trap snow when it's available for water supply, looking at tillage systems, and looking at mountain water supply and other water supplies for irrigation.
Both Alberta and Saskatchewan have proposed massive irrigation systems. We have to make sure there's enough water to do this and that it's available through the longest droughts, and that there is also water for ecosystems, indigenous communities, the cities, and hydroelectric and other purposes.
It's a very challenging time.
Canada's agricultural water tie-in could be even more important in the future as the rest of the world loses its ability to produce food reliably. We will have stresses and difficulties, but we will be relatively better off than many areas, including the Midwestern United States as one example.