Agriculture committee  It's an interesting conundrum that farmers find ourselves in. We have a financial bottom line running our businesses. We have to balance our upfront costs versus what we can sell our products for and manage a net income that's going to at least keep us in business. That being sa

Agriculture committee  I'll touch on your first question briefly in terms of the impact of gas and diesel usage on our farms and ranches. It's our primary usage for our equipment, for our combines, our tractors and a lot of the other equipment that we use on our farms and our farm trucks, but there are

Agriculture committee  There is some interesting work being done right now through the living labs program at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. In the newest round of projects, they are looking at soil health and conservation and soil carbon sequestration, but it could be a very good avenue for looking

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. If we have independent agrologists, they can help farmers adopt their best possible low-emission cropping and grazing systems. They can create and run demonstration farms—potentially even using the existing research station and experimental farm network that we still

Agriculture committee  A lot of that debt comes from two sources, really, but primarily inputs. I mentioned our 2019 report entitled “Tackling the Farm Crisis and the Climate Crisis”. There's a really illustrative graph in there showing where the difference is between farm net income and farm revenues.

Agriculture committee  We would like to see the mechanism set up so that farmers are not bearing this burden on their own. Farming causes.... Depending on whose estimates you're using, we're at anywhere between 8% and 12% of Canada's GHG emissions, yet we're pretty unique in being a price-taker. There'

Agriculture committee  I think that's fair to say, especially on the amount that was allocated towards incentivizing the purchase of cleaner-burning grain-drying equipment. I think it's going to have a huge impact for folks in the Prairies especially.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. Our concern is that in our understanding Bill C-206 as it stands right now does not necessarily accommodate for barn heating the way that the budget rebate is intended to cover, and for the recategorization of heating fuels in particular. We're envisi

Agriculture committee  I understand. The position of the NFU is that while carbon pricing is not necessarily the most effective mechanism, as we feel that incentivizing emissions reductions at the source would be more beneficial, at the same time, an exemption without programs put in place to put in t

Agriculture committee  In terms of greenhouse heating, I might defer to my colleagues on the Horticultural Council for that in particular. I know there's increasing research being done on biomass fuels and some ideas in that vein, and there is increasing commercialization happening. I believe there's a

Agriculture committee  The organization you're referencing is called La Via Campesina. It is an international organization of peasant and small-scale farmers and fisher folks from across the world. Many of the organizations are, in their home countries, engaged in food sovereignty issues and work again

Agriculture committee  Our policy in our organization favours a rebate; however, we do feel that farmers, who are facing no other options in the face of a difficult harvest, should not bear this burden.

Agriculture committee  Thank you and good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me to present today. It's a welcome break from the lambing barn. My name is Katie Ward and, in addition to being a sheep and hog farmer in the national capital region, I'm in my third te