The mill, which Cargill has been operating since 1985, has the capacity to crush 750 tonnes of seed a day to produce 420 tonnes of rapeseed meal and 323 tonnes of crude rapeseed oil.

Traders said a sharp drop in production of rapeseed in Britain during the last few years had made it difficult for mills to obtain supplies from local sources and there has been an increasing reliance on imported supplies.

Cargill also has a rapeseed crush plant at Liverpool in northwest England while U.S. grain merchant ADM operates a facility at Erith in southeast England.

Many farmers in Britain have stopped growing rapeseed due to problems with cabbage stem flea beetles following a ban on a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids which was imposed to protect bees.

Rapeseed area in Britain peaked at 756,000 hectares (1.87 million acres) in 2012 but totalled only 306,000 hectares for the 2021 harvest, according to government data.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nigel Hunt.

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Federal scientists have studied neonics and their potential impact on aquatic insects for years. The final judgment was scheduled for this autumn, but now won’t happen until the spring.

“Due to the vast amount of new information received, and the measures taken related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific reviews have encountered delays,” Health Canada said on its website.

“Health Canada is now expecting to publish these decisions (aquatic special reviews of clothianidin and thiamethoxam, and the general re-evaluation of imidacloprid) in spring 2021.”

Why it matters: If neonicotinoids are removed from the list of crop protection products farmers are permitted to use, new pesticides will have to be found and alternative practices will have to be adopted.

From Quebec to Alberta, neonicotinoid insecticides are used on tens of millions of acres. The three main products are imidacloprid, clothianidin, made by Bayer, and thiamethoxam, a Syngenta product. The neonics, as they are commonly known, are applied to almost every corn and canola seed and a portion of soybean seeds. They are also sprayed on fruit, vegetables and berry crops.

In 2016, Health Canada proposed to phase out all agricultural uses of imidacloprid because the insecticides were accumulating in ponds, creeks and other water bodies near agricultural land.

In 2018, Health Canada made the same phase-out recommendation for thiamethoxam and clothianidin.

If neonics are harming aquatic insects such as midges and mayflies, it could pose a threat to birds and other animals that rely on the insects for food.

“Therefore, Health Canada proposed to phase out all the agricultural and a majority of other outdoor uses of imidacloprid, as well as all outdoor uses of clothianidin and thiamethoxam to protect the environment,” the department website states.

The phase-out period was pegged at three to five years.

That decision was unpopular with farmers and many farm groups, who said it was based on water quality models rather than actual data on the amount of neonics in wetlands, creeks and rivers.

Since 2018, Health Canada has been reviewing water monitoring data from across the Prairies, Ontario and other parts of Canada.

The Canadian Canola Growers Association and Alberta Agriculture conducted separate studies on water adjacent to farmland in Western Canada.

Both groups found tiny amounts of the neonics in wetlands and other water bodies at levels that are safe for midges and mayflies.

“We’ve characterized this as not indicating a high level of risk to aquatic invertebrates in Alberta,” said Shaun Cook, an agri-environmental specialist with Alberta Agriculture, in the winter of 2019.

“We recognize the use of neonics is ubiquitous in agriculture areas, but we very infrequently find them (in water).”

Health Canada scientists are using the Alberta data and results from other studies to make a final decision on the environmental safety of neonics.

Ontario has lessened the requirements it implemented years ago to use neonic seed treatments, but the province is working to harmonize its pesticide policies with the federal government.

This article originally appeared in The Western Producer.

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Farmers will not be allowed to use the neonic insecticide, sold under the brands Calypso and Biscaya, after April 30, 2020, when its current approval expires.

A majority of EU countries approved the proposal of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, not to extend approval.

The Commission based its assessment on findings of the European Food Safety Agency published in January 2019. It highlighted concerns about the active substance being toxic for humans and present in too great a concentration in ground water, an EFSA spokesman said in an email.

The EU prohibited the use of three so-called neonicotinoids everywhere except greenhouses in April 2018. France has already outlawed all four insecticides and one other, including in greenhouses.

In Canada, thiacloprid picked up full registration from the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency in 2007 and is sold by Bayer under the Calypso 480 SC brand.

The product is registered in the six eastern provinces and British Columbia for use in pome fruit, such as apples and pears, to control Oriental fruit moth, apple maggot and leafhopper, among others.

Bayer CropScience Canada bills the product as “the first new truly broad-spectrum insecticide for apple and pear growers since the organophosphates in the 1960s.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Marine Strauss. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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“Health Canada… will be cancelling some uses of these pesticides, and changing other conditions of use such as restricting the timing of application,” a department news release said. “Remaining uses (e.g., treatment on canola seeds and greenhouse vegetables) are not expected to pose unacceptable risks to bees and other pollinators.”

Why it matters: Neonicotinoid seed treatments are an important pest control tool and the ruling ensures those types of uses can continue.

Put another way, Health Canada said neonic seed treatments are safe for bees.

For about seven years, scientists have looked at three neonic insecticides — clothianidin, imidacloprid (Bayer products) and thiamethoxam (Syngenta) — to determine if the products are a threat to bees.

The products are used as foliar sprays, but the major use is seed treatments.

“We’re generally pleased that (Pest Management Regulatory Agency) reaffirmed the safety of neonics as a seed treatment,” said Pierre Petelle, CropLife Canada president.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of activist pressure on this… Removing the entire class wouldn’t have helped pollinators. So that’s a significant (decision).”

The PMRA did decide to remove other uses of neonics to protect bees.

Fruit, vegetable and berry growers will lose many tools, including spraying of orchard trees and soil application of berry crops.

The Ontario Beekeepers Association may be disappointed with Health Canada’s decision, but beekeeper groups in Western Canada are supporters of neonics.

They have argued that neonic seed treatments are safer for bees than alternative insecticides.

The PMRA position on pollinators will not be its final word on neonics.

Health Canada has proposed to ban all uses of neonics because the insecticides may be accumulating in ponds, creeks and other water bodies near agricultural land.

That may be reducing the population of midges and mayflies in water bodies, potentially harming birds and animals that depend on those insects for food.

However, PMRA scientists have been studying water monitoring data from 2017 and 2018. If the data shows that tiny amounts of neonics are accumulating in sloughs and ponds near farmland, the PMRA could change its position on the absolute ban.

A final decision is expected in December.

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University of Saskatchewan biologists have identified a comparable phenomenon in locusts, when the insects are exposed to a small dose of insecticide.

Why it matters: Farmers require a wide range of pesticides to most effectively control pests. Research into how the pesticides affect insects and the environment is key to convincing the public of their continued value and of gaining public acceptance for responsible pesticide use.

“If you’re crossing an intersection and a car is going to come and T-bone you, the normal reaction would be to slam on the brakes or speed up or turn,” said Rachel Parkinson, a PhD student in biology at the University of Saskatchewan.

“With these insects (in the study) it’s almost as if they don’t notice that car coming at all.”

For several years Parkinson and Jack Gray, a biology professor and expert in neural control of animal behaviour, have been studying how neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides, alters the vision and motion detection of locusts.

Neonicotinoids, commonly known as neonics, are widely used in crop production and are applied to nearly every canola and corn seed in North America as a seed treatment.

Previous studies have shown that bees, when exposed to low doses of neonics, struggled to find their way back to the hive and had difficulty navigating.

Parkinson wanted to push beyond that level of knowledge and figure out what was causing the navigation problems.

“The question I was asking was why?”

This month, Parkinson and Gray published an answer to that question in the journal NeuroToxicology.

When exposed to “tiny amounts” of a neonic or metabolites, compounds created as the chemical breaks down, the locusts struggled to turn, glide and stop to avoid collisions.

“Our findings suggest that very low doses of the pesticide or its metabolic products can profoundly and negatively affect motion detection systems that flying insects, such as locusts, grasshoppers and bees, need for survival,” Gray said. “Although they are found in the environment… metabolites are not typically tested for toxicity. Our results suggest they should be.”

To reach that conclusion, Gray and Parkinson placed locusts inside a small, laboratory wind tunnel, about one metre by one metre by two metres.

While the results shouldn’t surprise people because neonics are insecticides and locusts are insects, the findings may explain how neonics affect locusts, bees and other insects, Parkinson said.

“I would argue the experiments I’ve done are really useful for being able to tease out these really subtle effects, which could have major (impacts) on survival… Maybe the harm is happening in these more subtle ways.”

Parkinson has conducted a similar experiment on sulfoxaflor, a Corteva Agriscience insecticide, to see how it affects locusts. She expects to publish the results in about six months.

So far, Parkinson and Gray have focused on locusts because they’re easier to study than bees.

Parkinson plans to study bees this summer, to see if neonics affect their vision and motion detection in the wind tunnel.

This article was originally published at the Western Producer.

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Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is proposing that two neonicotinoid pesticides, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, be phased out over the next three to five years.

Following special reviews, PMRA found that the pesticides are harmful to aquatic insects which are a major source of food for fish, birds and other animals.

The chemicals are widely used as seed treatments for the majority of canola grown in Western Canada. While the impact on bees is often mentioned in discussions on neonics, PMRA itself came out with a proposed decision in 2017 noting that the neonicotinoid seed treatments don’t negatively hurt pollinators, including bees.

“These seed treatments are used on canola to prevent the young plants from being eaten by flea beetles,” said Brian Innes, vice-president of public affairs with the Canola Council of Canada.

“We’re concerned about not having these products will have a significant impact on the canola industry,” said Innes adding “it will mean increased risks and reduced yields.”

It can be very hard to predict when the insect when flea beetles will strike a field and individual fields can be lost in as little as 36 hours, according to Innes. While foliar chemical applications are an option, the small window makes control difficult.

“If we remove the neonicotinoids, it forces people to use other alternatives,” said John Gavloski, extension entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture. There are trade-offs with other pesticides, he said, making it hard to determine the eventual impact on crop production.

Diamides are a group of chemicals that can also be used as a seed treatment against flea beetles, he said. They are not as water-soluble as neonicotinoids — which comes with its own pros and cons.

The lower water solubility of diamides means they are slower to react. However, with neonicotinoids, a rain right after planting can wash away much of the seed treatment, which would not be the case with diamides.

Gavloski said more chemical options were also being researched and should be available for the market soon.

While more tools could take the place of neonicotinoids, “we’re very concerned as a canola industry, because any tool that’s taken away from farmers has a negative impact on their ability to produce canola and manage their risk,” said Innes.

Small impacts on yields could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars of losses in the bigger picture, he said.

There is a 90-day window of comment on the PMRA proposals, and Innes said the Canola Council will review the decision to make sure all of the available information was taken into account.

“We as a canola industry very much value a science-based review process,” he said.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow him at @PhilFW on Twitter.

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PMRA officials on Wednesday announced 90-day consultation periods on its decisions for both clothianidin and thiamethoxam, following “special reviews” which found both substances being measured at levels harmful to aquatic insects.

Clothianidin, under its current conditional registration, is marketed by Bayer in Canada as insecticides and seed treatments under brand names including Poncho, Prosper, Titan and Sepresto and by Nufarm as NipsIt. Thiamethoxam’s conditional registration covers products such as Cruiser and Helix, marketed by Syngenta.

PMRA proposes to cancel all outdoor agricultural and turf uses for clothianidin, and all outdoor (non-greenhouse) agricultural and ornamental uses for thiamethoxam, over three to five years, depending on availability of alternatives.

Scott Kirby, director general of PMRA’s environmental assessment directorate, said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday that most affected products would be phased out over the shorter period as alternatives are available.

Final special review decisions are to be announced at the end of next year, Health Canada said, and “will take into consideration any comments or new information received during the consultation period.”

Special reviews for both neonics were announced in November 2016 in the wake of PMRA’s routine re-evaluation of the third major neonic, imidacloprid, sold mainly by Bayer under brands such as Admire, Gaucho, Concept and Intercept.

Through that re-evaluation, Health Canada said it found imidacloprid being measured at levels harmful to certain aquatic insect populations such as mayflies and midges — a “critical food source” for fish, birds and other animals. The department thus proposed to phase out most uses of imidacloprid over three to five years.

Special reviews, Health Canada said, are launched based on “reasonable grounds to believe that the health or environmental risks, or the value (including effectiveness), of a pesticide is unacceptable.”

An environmental assessment of clothianidin showed that, in aquatic environments in Canada, the product is being measured at concentrations that are harmful to aquatic insects and most outdoor uses of clothianidin in Canada thus are “not sustainable.”

Modelling results from a risk assessment for thiamethoxam showed a “minimal acute risk to freshwater invertebrates” but found exposure on a “chronic basis” poses a risk to those species, Health Canada said.

However, the agency deemed the risks to aquatic invertebrates from greenhouse uses of thiamethoxam to be “acceptable” and plans to allow the chemical’s continued registration for greenhouse uses, “provided wastewater mitigation instructions on product labels are followed.”

For both neonics, PMRA said it will consider any “alternate risk management proposals” put forward during the comment period, “provided that they can achieve acceptable levels in the environment within the same timeframe.”

PMRA had proposed in late 2017 to grant three-year extensions to the registrations for both products, pending the outcome of the special review, while also phasing out certain specific uses of the products to reduce risk to pollinators. Final decisions relating to the pollinator evaluation are expected at the end of this year, Kirby said.

Grain Growers of Canada, in a separate statement Wednesday, said it plans to further review PMRA’s proposed decisions.

Meanwhile, GGC president Jeff Nielsen said, the group is concerned that PMRA’s re-evaluation process “is focused on publishing proposed decisions as fast as possible,” which appears to limit the agency’s ability to ensure “all relevant information” is available.

The focus on speed, he said, also “prevents (PMRA) from engaging farmers so that we can fully understand the issues they raise, which would allow us to provide the PMRA with the information required to refine these decisions.”

Both products “are very important for our growers, and without viable alternatives, the ban will significantly impact the canola sector,” Brian Innes, vice-president of public affairs for the Canola Council of Canada, said in a separate release.

The council, which said it will also “thoroughly review” the PMRA proposal, on Wednesday cited a 2017 study of European growers’ experience without neonics, showing increased risk of insect damage, lower yields and, as a result, fewer canola acres.

“With more than 22 million acres of canola in Canada in 2018, banning these plant protection tools would have a dramatic impact,” the council said.

CropLife Canada, representing the crop protection industry, said it found the PMRA proposal “especially disappointing and confusing to many, given that earlier this year the PMRA released a seemingly contradictory proposed decision validating the safety of both of these products to pollinators as seed treatments, which is one of their primary uses.”

CropLife CEO Pierre Petelle said Wednesday the organization will also review the PMRA’s proposals and data, “correct any misinterpretation of the data and provide comments to address any information gaps identified.”

The Reuters news agency on Wednesday quoted a Syngenta Canada spokesperson as saying the company is disappointed with the decision and believes the PMRA did not consider all relevant information. Reuters also quoted a Bayer spokesperson as saying the company believes clothianidin has a “favourable environmental profile.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The ministry says use has dropped only 22 per cent whereas industry estimates put the decline generally at over 30 per cent and higher in some areas.

Why it matters: The province has set a goal of reducing neonic use by 80 per cent and has introduced regulations to discourage their use. Data that shows that the reduction in use of neonics is moving slowly could lead to more regulation.

Deb Campbell, owner of Agronomy Advantage, said that use of neonics in corn in her area in central Ontario declined by about 30 per cent in 2017 and in 2018 only about 30 per cent of corn acres will see neonics used.

Those numbers are close to the what the Canadian Seed Trade Association and CropLife Canada are saying. They wrote a letter to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change seeking to clarify the neonic acreage numbers.

The organizations say there has been a decrease of 38 per cent in the corn acres treated with neonics from 2014 (when almost all corn was treated with neonics) to 2017. The decrease from 2016 to 2017 was only four per cent, from 72 per cent of acres to 68 per cent of acres.

Soybeans have seen a greater drop, according to the organizations, to 44 per cent of acres in 2017 from 51 per cent in 2016.

The province’s report shows soybean acres with treated seed down by 27 per cent in 2017 versus 2014, compared to 22 per cent reduction in the same period for corn. There are some other questionable numbers in the provincial report, including a more than doubling of the use of clothianidin, or Poncho, in corn.

There have been timely approvals of new seed treatments for corn, which has allowed for a relatively easy shift for corn farmers to the Group 28 diamide seed treatments. They are sold as Lumivia by Corteva Agriscience, and Fortenza, by Sygenta. The new treatments don’t cover exactly the same insects.

Soybean numbers are trickier, as there haven’t been alternative seed treatments available. However, Corteva Agriscience announced the registration of Lumiderm, on April 19. It’s also a Group 28 insecticide and delivers broad-spectrum, early-season protection against bean leaf beetle and soybean aphid. It won’t be available until the 2019 planting season.

That reflects what Clare Kinlin, crop inputs sales leader with MacEwan Agricentre in eastern Ontario has seen with growers in that area.

Soybean growers, especially, appreciate insecticide seed treatments as they push lower seeding rates and earlier planting, so he estimates about 60 per cent still use neonic seed treatments.

In corn, however, he could see neonic use go to almost zero with the use of the new seed treatment products.

Dale Cowan, senior agronomist with AGRIS Co-operative, however, said the provincial neonic reduction number is reasonable.

“I would say their numbers, 22 per cent decline, fit within the range of error in the calculation, so I could see that making sense.”

In the AGRIS territory neonic use in corn was 89 per cent in 2016 and in 2017 81 per cent. He expects it to be about 60 per cent in 2018. In soybeans in 2016, neonic use was 59 per cent, last year 49 per cent and he expects this year about 40 per cent. Farmers will go through the documentation process in order to still use neonics to control wireworms in soybeans, he said, as neonics remain the best control for the pest.

Working through the paperwork

Farmers are still allowed to grow crops using neonic seed treatment if they can show insect pressure warrants the use of the seed treatment. They also have to receive training and as of this season, in certain regions of the province, will have to have their scouting results confirmed by a Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) in order to use the insecticide next year. Other areas of the province will have the CCA requirement phased in.

“Lots of folks, because of the headache involved in evaluating the need for neonics have moved onto the newer options,” said Campbell.

Kinlin said growers who need the neonic treatment, especially for wireworm, have learned to manage the paperwork, after wading through it the first year. Alternative treatments have made the numbers move much more than dealing with the paperwork, he said.

She says the province needs to audit the process it uses to get the data for its neonic numbers if they are going to be published.

“They can’t be that wrong and have any confidence in the process they are using.”

Kinlin said that there are problems with how neonic seed treatments are counted based on the system that’s used, so the numbers are skewed.

The alternative seed treatments now are all from Group 28, which creates concern about eventual insect resistance. Kinlin laments that neonics were restricted before a combination of the new seed treatments, with a lower rate of neonic were able to be used which would have reduced resistance risk and the environmental load of neonics.

Groups concerned about the use of neonics have highlighted the “low” decline of the use of neonics, including a letter from the Ontario Bee Association to the provincial ministers involved calling for more restrictions on the insecticides.

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The study, spearheaded by a team from Switzerland’s Universite de Neuchatel and published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, was meant to assess “global exposure of pollinators to neonicotinoids.”

The team’s report emphasized the compounds occurred in honey samples “at levels considered safe for human consumption.”

However, the Swiss team wrote, “the contamination confirms the inundation of bees and their environments with these pesticides, despite some recent efforts to decrease their use.”

Of 198 honey samples sourced worldwide through a “citizen science project,” the team found at least one of five tested compounds (acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, thiamethoxam) in 75 per cent of all samples.

Thirty per cent of all samples contained “a single neonicotinoid,” while 45 per cent of the total samples contained “two or more” neonic compounds; 10 per cent contained “four or five.”

The samples were taken from all continents except Antarctica, as well as from “numerous isolated islands.”

The proportion of samples with trace levels of at least one neonic “varied considerably among regions,” with the highest in samples from North America (86 per cent), Asia (80 per cent) and Europe (79 per cent) samples; the lowest proportion was in South American samples at 57 per cent.

In all regions, at least one neonic was recorded in at least 25 per cent of samples, and three neonicotinoids (thiamethoxam, imidacloprid, clothianidin) were recorded in at least 50 per cent of samples in North America, the team wrote.

Imidacloprid “dominated overall concentrations in Africa and South America,” the team added, while thiacloprid led in Europe, acetamiprid in Asia and thiamethoxam in Oceania and North America, “reflecting regional differences in usage of specific pesticide types.”

“Our results confirm the exposure of bees to neonicotinoids in their food throughout the world,” the team wrote, and “the coexistence of neonicotinoids and other pesticides may increase harm to pollinators.”

The Ottawa-based Canadian arm of environmental group Friends of the Earth viewed the Swiss team’s findings as evidence supporting a “complete and permanent ban” on neonic pesticides.

“Bees collect nectar and pollen from their environment and, like the canary in the coal mine, they provide early warning of toxins. This study points to the urgent need to ban neonics,” John Bennett, senior policy advisor for Friends of the Earth Canada, said in a separate release Thursday.

“We also have the right to know what pesticides are being used where and when — it’s time for Canada to require pesticide use reports.”

Specifically, the group said, pesticide users “should be required to report time and location of use,” which would provide “much-needed information on the cocktail of pesticides encountered by honey bees and wild, native bees.” — AGCanada.com Network

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Jeff Leal’s decision, announced in August, resulted in a Dec. 21 threat from Ontario’s largest tomato processors to significantly cut back their tomato purchases from Ontario farmers in 2017.

Processing tomato prices have been negotiated by the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers on behalf of producers. But processors want to negotiate with producers individually — and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission’s now-stalled proposal had been expected to lead to regulatory adjustments toward that end.

“It was the right decision,” Leal said during an interview with Glacier FarmMedia, looking ahead to 2017 in Ontario agriculture.

Leal’s decisions, such as overruling the OFPMC, are made with advice from OMAFRA and ministerial staff, he said.

“I depend on them to help me make the right decision that will benefit the agriculture sector in the province of Ontario.”

His directive to the commission is “very clear,” he said. “We have to come up a solution that benefits both parties and a very detailed economic analysis needs to be done before we reach the solution on this particular matter.”

Leal stepped in after farmers protested during the short consultation period, scheduled during last year’s production season, on the changes proposed by the OFPMC.

Geri Kamenz, chair of the commission, has since resigned and been replaced by Jim Clark, executive director of the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association, as interim chair.

Wynne’s jobs challenge

Processing has played a major role in the 42,000 jobs Leal said have been created toward the province’s goal of adding 120,000 new jobs in the sector by 2020.

“We want to continue to grow the agriculture sector in Ontario,” said Leal, who last Thursday was appointed as Ontario’s minister responsible for small business, on top of his agriculture responsibilities.

The sector’s job growth so far has occurred mostly in retail and processing, he said, but has been seen throughout the supply chain.

One of the strengths of the sector is that it includes all of the steps of the agrifood chain, he said, from farm supply to farmers to processing and markets for final sale.

Ontario is also a major agricultural exporter, handling $10 billion of Canada’s $30 billion in agrifood exports to the U.S. — which has Leal concerned with the anti-trade rhetoric emerging from the U.S.

“We know that president-elect Trump has targeted Mexico, but you have to be watchful of unintended consequences when someone else is the target… you may get hit by the wake that sometimes leaves.”

Meanwhile, Leal has led trade missions to China and, last year, India, where he said there is opportunity. He noted he’s been impressed by Ontario food’s reputation around the world.

“When I was in China people knew about Foodland Ontario and the quality of our food. Canada and Ontario represents both quality and safety second to none and that is a premium that Ontario and Canada has and it is a great way to open doors in every part of the world.”

China is more interested in quality food products, while India needs technology that can help its food infrastructure to help reduce food waste. About 40 per cent of the crop in India is wasted due to poor storage logistics, said Leal.

Neonics: ‘Change is difficult’

At home, treatment regimens for Ontario’s crops will continue to evolve, Leal said, and there will be new products developed that can replace neonics as seed treatments.

“Our farm community continues to work through the framework that has been provided,” he said. “For society in general, change is difficult.”

The government, he noted, supported Conservative MPP Lisa Thompson’s private member’s bill, which aimed to define professional pest advisors.

Thompson’s bill was meant as a response to the concern that there were not enough advisors available, as per the province’s definition, to allow farmers to apply to use neonic pesticides.

Precision diagnostic technology, such as drone imaging, could also enable farmers to more precisely manage pesticide applications in the future, Leal said.

Carbon caps

Leal said he also continues to work on the province’s climate change action plan.

“Carbon sequestration is something farmers know something about. Farmers are our best environmental stewards and we need to remind our urban audience of that.”

Leal, however, couldn’t list any way in which farmers could benefit from their ability to sequester carbon. Farmers are being hit by increased fuel costs following implementation of an emissions-regulating cap-and-trade system in Ontario.

Early cap-and-trade systems allowed farmers to sell carbon credits on account of their crops’ carbon sequestration, particularly in crops under minimal tillage. However, the systems that have been developed are more regulatory and managed by governments.

All funds collected through cap-and-trade will be returned to the people of the province, including farmers, Leal said, but he indicated some of those returns would come through program spending, not directly via tax cuts.

A project to upgrade the 40-year-old provincial soil map was one example he gave of a program that could be paid for by cap-and-trade funds.

Growing Forward sequel

Ontario, Leal said, is pleased at the response it’s getting from federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay in discussions on the next agriculture policy funding framework, now being negotiated to replace Growing Forward 2 in 2018.

Farmers’ biggest concern over Growing Forward 2 is that so much funding was reduced and program eligibility tightened under the new framework.

“We want to make sure that business risk management plans that we share jointly with the government of Canada are effective for the farm community,” Leal said.

— John Greig is a field editor for Glacier FarmMedia based at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him at @jgreig on Twitter.

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