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Tag Archives Environment — page 9

L to R: Emma Epp, second vice-president of ESCIA, Chad Quinlan, Walther Quinlan and Michael Dick, agriculture technician with ERCA. Quinlan Farms received the 2022 Conservation Farm of the Year Award, given jointly by the ESCIA and ERCA.
News

Quinlan Farms wins Essex conservation award

Award given for investments in soil and water health, production diversity

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The Essex Soil and Crop Improvement Association (ESCIA) and Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) recently bestowed the 2022 Conservation Farm of the Year Award to Quinlan Farms, a mixed crop, poultry and sheep business in central Essex.  Granted annually to a farm within Essex County that displays conservation-minded management practices, Quinlan Farms received the award […] Read more
‘Policymakers, private businesses and producers will need to collaborate in new ways as we pursue a national strategy designed to support farmers…’
News

How to expand production and slash emissions

A recent report concludes that carbon sequestration is the key to producing more crops while reducing greenhouse gases

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Glacier FarmMedia – Canadian farmers can play an even greater role in the global food powerhouse while reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, a team of economists and analysts argues in a new report. From today’s 93 million megatonnes of annual emissions, Canadian agricultural emissions will grow to 137 million by 2050 if current farm production […] Read more
Simon Stiell, the United Nations’ executive secretary of framework convention on climate change, speaks at the closing plenary at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt Nov. 20.
News

Food systems must transform: COP27

Climate change meeting emphasized the need to look at specific production systems

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Glacier FarmMedia – Feeding eight billion people requires transformation of food systems, delegates to COP27 heard. Four initiatives to do that were announced at the most recent climate change conference held in Egypt. The conference noted the past year has been challenging. Thirty-seven million people face starvation in Africa after four consecutive droughts. Floods in […] Read more
UK farmer Stephen Briggs says adding trees to his landscape has built his farm’s resilience.
News

How mixing farms with forests can help nations reach net zero

Planting trees on working farms can curb emissions, boost income but money and time are barriers

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Thomson Reuters Foundation – Stephen Briggs popped open his pocket knife, carved a wedge from a small pink and green apple and took a bite. “Those are ready,” he said, looking at a nearby apple tree, one of 4,500 planted in neat rows through wheat fields on his farm near Peterborough, in eastern England. The […] Read more
Meetings such as the COP27 raise topics on how to combat greenhouse gas emissions, but context is needed on how much particular sectors of agriculture and other industries contribute to the problem.
Livestock, News

Opinion: Cows, oil and elephants

Livestock’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions needs to be put into context

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More than 30,000 people met recently in Egypt for the 27th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP27) to deal with what many consider to be the single biggest challenge facing mankind: climate change.  We created this crisis over many decades and there is no quick answer or silver bullet solution.  COP27 is one of […] Read more
A University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist argues that every tonne of produced grain removes 1.65 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which would mean Canadian grain production has a much bigger role in the equation than current policy reflects.
News

Economist sounds alarm over carbon reporting

Prof draws attention to how policy is affected by ignoring the carbon sequestration value of grain production

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Glacier FarmMedia – Agricultural economist Richard Gray says the worldwide carbon accounting system used to plan grain policy is flawed because it fails to properly include how grain stores and releases carbon. The University of Saskatchewan professor told the standing committee on agriculture that every tonne of produced grain removes 1.65 tonnes of carbon dioxide […] Read more
The government’s push to build more housing in the province will come at the expense of protected lands. Bill 23 will remove 7,400 acres from the Greenbelt and removes the ability of conservation authorities to work with municipalities on development planning.
News

Ontario government’s Bill 23 accelerates concern about loss of farmland

More Homes Built Faster Act will allow new house builds on protected lands

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After four years of rolling back protective Greenbelt legislation, the Ontario government’s More Homes Built Faster Act is opening acres for urban development. The Greenbelt was established in 2005 to protect environmentally sensitive lands and farmland from urban development but the recently announced act, known as Bill 23, will remove 7,400 acres from protection.  Wayne […] Read more
The author looks at what we’ve learned about pesticides and the environment in the six decades since publication of the book that changed how the world sees nature.
News

Opinion: Hearing the Silent Spring 60 years on

A reflection on what we’ve learned about pesticides since publication of the bestseller

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In 1962 environmental scientist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a bestselling book that asserted that overuse of pesticides was harming the environment and threatening human health. Carson did not call for banning DDT, the most widely used pesticide at that time, but she argued for using it and similar products much more selectively and paying […] Read more
Propane is used to dry grain on farms across Canada.
News

Farm scale viability of fossil fuel alternatives questioned

Testimony continues on whether farmers should be exempt from carbon pricing on more fuels

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Glacier FarmMedia – The chief executive officer of the Agri-Food Innovation Council (AIC) has said the technology to replace fossil fuels with alternative sources isn’t yet scalable. Serge Buy told the standing committee on agriculture recently that examples of farmers using biomass to dry grain are just that, and only larger farms with bigger, healthier […] Read more
According to the study, adoption of new technologies could lead to a three per cent increase in milk yields, reduce GHG emissions by eight per cent and reduce feed, land and water use by six, four and three per cent, respectively, by 2030.
Nutrition

Dairy industry makes strides in sustainability and GHG mitigation

Advances and adoption of new technologies show positive impact, according to new report

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North American dairy production is reducing its impact on the climate while maximizing production through genetics, technology and data-driven decisions.  That’s the conclusion of a recent report, ‘The Environmental Benefits of Modern Dairy, Hay, and Forage Production Technologies’, which was unveiled at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, during an industry expert panel discussion […] Read more

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