Prairie farmers forum report focuses on sustainability, profitability

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This article was published 11/06/2024 (478 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To start, Peter Tokar didn’t understand his fellow farmers.

He was one of 36 drawn together, from across the Prairies, to participate in a first-of-its-kind forum discussing long-term sustainability and profitability in agriculture.

Farmers for Climate Solutions, a farmer-led advocacy group, sent 10,000 letters inviting producers to enter its lottery system. Those picked gathered over three winter sessions, culminating in a report chock-full of recommendations for decision makers.

It’s been three months since Tokar attended the last session. The report was released earlier in June. Its 36 recommendations cover on-farm practices, research and funding support for Prairie farmers and ranchers.

Farmers for Climate Solutions touts the forum as a successful way producers overcame their differences to promote change.

“It was hard to actually come together as a group at first, because mostly we just butted heads,” the Minitonas oilseed, grain and cattle farmer said.

The second session was “significantly less combative and more friendly.” By the third, attendees were exchanging numbers and shaking hands, Tokar recalled.

Topics such as climate change and government responsibility raised hackles, noted Gordon Bacon, co-chair of the forum.

Farmers came with a range of perspectives and backgrounds. Nine were Manitoban, eight were Albertan and 19 were from Saskatchewan.

Farmers for Climate Solutions held sessions in each province, asking the group to bring forward their agriculture-related concerns and calls to action. The goal was not to change minds but to focus on shared interests, Bacon relayed. The group heard from 26 experts.

Rarely do producers get around the table with politicians and food organizations — the report is to guard against disconnect, Bacon explained earlier this year.

“What I learned was that language becomes really important,” he said, referencing tense moments during the forum. “It was basically, ‘Are there things that we can talk about that can benefit your farm?’”

It turns out, yes. Land stewardship was a priority for everyone involved, Bacon noted.

The 71-page report breaks recommendations into seven topics: cross-cutting, livestock management, soil health, natural habitat, nitrogen management, energy and measurement.

The document calls for more support for farmers and ranchers to transition to lower emissions energy sources and to provide incentives for on-farm and on-ranch renewable energy production.

There needs to be better measurements at the individual farm level, Bacon underlined. “One solution will not best fit the entire country.”

Government policies often blanket a large swath of diverse land, hurting some businesses and helping others, echoed Tokar. His farm equipment has pollution control devices that regularly break down in cold temperatures.

Tokar, 43, farms near Swan River; his mechanic lives more than three hours away in Brandon. The emissions expended to fix the broken machinery likely offsets much of the pollution control, Tokar stated.

“If (government) would’ve … asked a few people that lived in the northern climate in Canada if this was a good idea or not, they would’ve heard pretty quick,” he said.

Tokar, too, hopes government will follow the report’s recommendations. He’s vouching for more restoration and protection of natural habitats.

“I think we would all like to preserve it and increase the habitat if we could justify it,” the farmer said. “But currently our only reward is to produce as many tonnes of grain per acre as humanly possible.”

He’d also like to buy fertilizer from the City of Winnipeg, using waste created and converted in the metropolis. Such a process would close the nitrogen loop, Tokar explained. “If given the opportunity, us farmers can be a major solution to the environmental and climate problems this nation faces.”

Each report recommendation was agreed upon by the 36 farmers. The forum is a “compelling model that sector organizations and governments should draw upon,” Gabriela Warrior Renaud, spokeswoman for Farmers for Climate Solutions, wrote in a statement.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com