Do you see agriculture as a glass half full or half empty?

Do you see the glass half full or half empty? Is the world full of challenges or full of opportunities? A simple question can say a lot about how someone sees the world, a world which is usually in the middle.? Few policy issues today illicit such differences of perspective as sustainability policy in Canada. As the federal government prepares to move forward with consultations on the Green Agriculture Plan, there is an opportunity, and need, to consider whether Canada’s sustainability policy glass is half full, half empty or somewhere in between.?

Much about sustainability is an opportunity for Canadian farmers.?

The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef gained early momentum due to McDonald’s commitment to source at least 30% of its beef as verified sustainable beef. That momentum has built over the last year as restaurants and retailers, including Loblaws and Walmart, have made commitments to purchasing Canadian certified sustainable beef.???

For beef producers accustomed to managing tight margins, a premium for selling sustainable beef is a step in the right direction. And with increasing demand in Canada and around the world, these premiums should continue to grow.??

In late 2021, Roquette officially launched its pea protein plant in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. The $600 million investment will increase demand for pulse crops and add value to those crops here in Canada, rather than in the US or overseas as is too often the case.?

Roquette decided to invest in Canada in part because of our supply of raw commodities and because of access to hydroelectric power. Combining sustainable pulse crops with sustainable energy is a winning combination for Canadian agriculture.??

Canada’s canola value-chain has benefitted from its sustainability. A Rabobank report from late 2021 highlighted how even though European Union demand for biodiesel is expected to decrease, demand for canola/rapeseed-based biodiesel is expected to grow as the EU moves away from palm oil. There is a market advantage to canola’s sustainability, an advantage that the value-chain is working hard to protect.?

A growing and unprecedented coalition of partners have come together through the National Index on Agri-Food Performance develop an integrated picture of sustainability for Canada’s agri-food sector from food production to retail. Partners understand the opportunities that exist and the need to position Canada to seize them.?

Sustainability is already driving value in the marketplace.? Ag tech, innovations, productivity growth are some of how green agriculture can benefit Canadian agriculture and food, drive growth and increase value. The glass is half full.??

However, the perception of sustainability policy is often less optimistic.

Much of the concern is driven by a concern that Canada is following a European approach to sustainability, an approach driven by less. Less inputs, less of an impact, but also less production and potentially less profitability.??

The European Union Farm to Fork strategy, which aims to make food systems “fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly” aims to boost organic acres, phase out pesticides and significantly reduce pesticide use. For many, this approach appears to move away from evidence-based policy, prioritizes a narrow set of environmental targets in complex, integrate systems, and does not account for the global nature of the food system, where a growing number of people rely on a shrinking number of food exporters.?

However, the green policy agenda can be an opportunity for Canadian agriculture.??

In the United States, the recently released Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with a significant focus on climate policy, is embracing incentives and investments to create opportunities through sustainable agriculture. The IRA injects nearly $20 billion over 10 years for a suite of conservation programs administered by the @United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It provides an additional $14 billion to support the development of renewable energy and spending on biofuels infrastructure, and $4 billion for climate change adaptation to mitigate the impacts of drought.?

The funding in the IRA follows recent announcements of how the USDA will invest $2.8 billion in 70 projects through the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding program. The partnership is intended to expand markets and revenue streams for producers, reach 50,000 farms with 20-25 million acres of working land and sequester more than 50 million metric tonnes of CO2e.??

The US approach focuses on positioning US farmers to capture the sustainability opportunities of today and tomorrow. It is an approach driven by policy carrots, not sticks.?

In Canada, federal sustainability policy has been neither half full, nor half empty, but somewhere in between. The last two federal budgets have included unprecedented federal investments in on-farm climate action. The recent FPT agreement on the Next Policy Framework included a new $250 million Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program. The federal government has also invested in collaborative research through the Living Laboratories Initiative, food waste reduction and more.?

However, the threat of sticks has left many seeing sustainability policy as half empty. The Federal fertilizer emission reduction target put agriculture on the front page of newspapers this summer. An upcoming announcement on the methane emission reduction target will likely continue the same debate. Concerns about the need to dedicate a share of research spending on emissions reduction, concerns about changes in pesticide regulation, delays in approving gene editing all cast a cloud over sustainability policy.?

This fall the federal government will launch consultations on its Green Agriculture Plan. It is an opportunity to reset the dialogue on sustainability policy, to help policy makers and actors in the agriculture and food value chain take a step back and look at how to better position sustainability policy as an opportunity for Canadian agriculture. Sustainability policy will never be just opportunity or threat. Time will tell if the Green Agriculture Plan can help shift the sustainability policy cup from half empty to half full.?