6. Environment and Agriculture

Executive Summary

A healthy environment is the basis of a resilient and sustainable agro-ecosystem. Agriculture affects and is affected by the natural world, and as such it must work within natural systems. Canadian agricultural systems must build and maintain healthy soil, clean water and air, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, mitigate and adapt to climate change, protect and enhance biodiversity, protect farmland, and reduce waste.

1. Because agriculture affects, and is in turn affected by the natural environment, policy measures must ensure that soil, water, air and biodiversity of the environment is protected for agriculture and that agricultural practices contribute to the ongoing health of the environment. For example, if an industrial practice (such as emitting toxic particulate matter) harms surrounding agricultural land or has deleterious effects on the food it produces, the industry must be required to alter its process so it is safe for agriculture. In turn, if an agricultural practice (such as applying manure at excessive rates) harms the surrounding environment with impacts on its integrity and sustainability, those practices must be altered to ensure that the environment is protected.
2. Agriculture and the global food supply are exceedingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, ecological agricultural provide significant climate change benefits, through its increased capacity to sequester carbon in to soil, by improved energy efficiency by reducing fossil fuel derived pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and by reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly nitrous oxide and methane. Therefore, agriculture policy and climate change mitigation policy must actively promote the shift to ecological farming methods.
3. Program, policy and regulatory measures must promote transition to more ecologically sustainable methods of farming and must remove financial and fiscal incentives that support ecologically damaging farming practices. The current safety net programs encourage specialization, concentration and increased scale of production, increasing both environmental costs and the risks of catastrophic failure. At the same time, farmers who convert to certified organic production shoulder the burden of carrying all the economic risks during their transition period. Policy should provide effective carrots and sticks to promote the uptake of sustainable agriculture.
4. Education is a key to ensuring broad public support for environmental sustainability, so formal and informal methods must be used to promote knowledge and understanding of the ecology of agriculture and the impacts of agriculture on the environment. As food becomes an ever more significant factor in world-wide social stability, the need for the population to have a fuller understanding of food production will be increasingly important. School curricula at every grade level need to incorporate both practical and academic lessons about sustainable agriculture. Community colleges, universities and informal education providers also need to be supported in providing research, training and skill-development to educate the upcoming generation of ecological agriculture producers.

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