Local farmers support move to regenerative agriculture

A new coalition of farm organizations called Farmers for Climate Solutions is taking an active role to include farmers in the conversation about climate change.
The coalition is taking a multi pronged approach, advocating for policy change at the federal level while also networking amongst each other to share best practices, all at a time when consumers are demanding food grown in climate conscious conditions.
Creemore farmers Gillian Flies, in her capacity as president of the Canadian Organic Growers, and Brent Preston, as president of the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario, are both working to further the cause of the coalition. They own and operate The New Farm near Dunedin, a certified organic vegetable farm.
One year ago a conversation began at the national level amongst those groups and others about supporting a wider move into regenerative agriculture.
“We got together realizing that our voices together would be stronger and more urgent than anything one of our organizations could do independently,” said Flies. “We realize the need that, if we’re going to do anything quickly, there has to be policy change.”
As a coalition they are advocating for the federal government to support climate friendly agricultural practices and farmers.
“There is ample evidence from Canada and other jurisdictions that increasing biodiversity, improving soil health and fostering healthy ecosystems on farms can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon sequestration, and improve farmer livelihoods by decreasing the need for purchased inputs and increasing resilience during weather extremes,” states a Farmers for Climate Change report.
The agriculture sector is responsible for 12 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse emissions.
Farmers for Climate Solutions formally launched in February of 2020, just before the pandemic. As is the case for everyone, it is currently the biggest threat but it is also being seen as a time to emerge better and stronger. The pandemic has also shone a spotlight on food security and sources.
“COVID-19 recovery is an opportunity to create change in a sector that has seriously lagged in its climate response. Now is the time to support farmers to adopt low-emission, high-resilience approaches that benefit farmers and provide ecological goods and services such as clean water, air, biodiversity, and renewable energy from which all Canadians benefit,” states the report.
“Climate change is the next biggest hurdle that we are going to have to get over and there is a real global realization that agriculture has a really large role to play in climate change innovation,” said Flies. “This is why these agriculture groups are coming together because traditionally agriculture has been left out of that conversation and out of that solution.”
The climate action conversation at the federal level has focused on alternative energy and reducing emissions, said Flies, when a big pieces of the puzzle is about how food is grown. Farmers for Climate Solutions are adding to the conversation with topics like carbon sequestering, the farm debt crisis and a lack of resiliency on farms to safeguard against extreme climate events.
“It’s really exciting because Farmers for Climate Solutions is a bunch of organizations coming together to really give a strong voice to farmers who want to be part of the solution,” said Flies.
“Our philosophy from the beginning is that every farmer, no matter who they are or how good their practices are, always do better and so our goal is to have all farmers moving in the right direction, moving toward lowering emissions and increasing resilience,” said Preston, adding that Farmers for Climate Solutions has representatives from over 20,000 farmers in every region in Canada, in all scales and sectors.
The group is proposing that $300 million be earmarked to support farmers as they transition through incentives for on-farm renewable energy generation; cover cropping, diversified crop rotations, holistic grazing, decreased tillage, and tree planting; farmer-to-farmer training; risk-reducing practices that enhance climate resilience; and investing in young and new farmers to help them overcome barriers as new business owners.
“Maybe the biggest one is improving nitrogen fertilizer use,” said Preston. “There are ways that farmers can reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer they use without affecting their yields and that has a big, big impact on greenhouse gas emissions.”
Coalition members have been having lots of meetings with ministries and is confident it is making progress.
If the budget proposal is approved, it’s still 50 times less than the European Union would spend on agriculture related environmental programs on a per acre basis, and 13 times less than the United States, according to the coalition’s research.
“Canadian farmers are going to get left behind if these other jurisdictions are spending way, way, way more than we are on improving the environment footprint of their ag sector,” said Preston.
He said the coalition is not promoting any new, untested ideas, only practical solutions that are proven to work and need to be scaled up.
Flies said education is key. The New Farm began learning about and implementing regenerative agriculture practices in 2017.
“We’re quite progressive farmers and very environmentally focussed and we didn’t even know about a lot of the benefits of these practices,” said Flies.
She said the practices can result in higher soil quality, lower costs and higher profits, which benefit the farmer, not just the climate.
Part of the conversation is about improving the existing farming structure, which has made it necessary for farmers to scale up in order to make a profit, and is the reason why smaller scale farmers have left the industry.
“We really believe strongly that improved farmer livelihoods has to be one of the outcomes and that’s why we need government support to get us through this transition phase,” said Preston.
To read more and take a pledge calling on federal and provincial governments to advance policies that will help all farmers adapt and make the transition to climate-friendly agriculture, visit farmersforclimatesolutions.ca.