Andrew McClelland
The Advocate
Designating soil as a “strategic national asset” is one of 25 recommendations put forward by the Canadian Senate agriculture committee to protect the soil structure on Canadian farmlands in a report issued earlier this month.
“We do not have another 40 years to protect and conserve our soils,” said Senator Robert Black, chair of the Senate agriculture committee, as he unveiled the new two-year study entitled “Critical Ground: Why Soil is Essential to Canada’s Economic, Environmental, Human and Social Health” on June 6.
The report, which took two years to compile with on-site tours and presentations from farmers, ranchers, research scientists and government officials, recommends that the federal government appoint a national soil advocate.
It is the first substantive study of soil produced by the Senate in four decades, when in 1984, Saskatchewan Senator Herb Sparrow put forth a report entitled “Soil at Risk: Canada’s Eroding Future.”
That report was key in the Canadian farming industry’s adoption of no-till farming. Since then, soil management has improved in Canada and crop yields have increased. But the country’s soil faces new challenges.
“Climate change, extreme weather events and urbanization are degrading soil conditions in every region of this country,” said Black, who previously worked for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture for 15 years. “We need to look at this strategically because it is an important issue.”
The latest study gathered information from more than 150 producers and considered 60 written briefs, along with supporting documents from soil science researchers, agronomists, farmers, ranchers, foresters, environmental organizations, agri-businesses, industry groups and federal, provincial and territorial governments to make its recommendations.
Chief among those recommendations is the proposal that Canada change the public conversation about how vital soil is to the nation’s health and economy.
“Soil is a valuable natural resource,” states a leading paragraph in the 160-page report. “The Government of Canada should designate soil as a strategic national asset. Other countries, such as Australia, have appointed a national soils advocate; the committee believes that the Government of Canada should do the same.”
The report also suggests that Canada’s current methods for measuring soil health are not advanced enough. The committee called on the federal government to collaborate with the provinces and territories to support the development of a consensus on how to measure, report and verify soil health.
It also recommends that farmers and ranchers should have access to “viable and valuable carbon markets,” be eligible for tax credits for soil preservation action, and that the government fund peer-to-peer knowledge sharing groups.
“To protect and conserve farmland soil throughout Canada, the committee heard that all levels of government … should work together to plan agriculture into, and not out of, communities,” the report states.
Witnesses also said that building soil-based incentives (tax credits for farmers, enhanced crop insurance, a viable carbon market), as well as sustained funding for soil research initiatives is imperative for producers’ prosperity.”
However, the Senate Committee on Agriculture notes that the problem of protecting Canada’s soil goes deeper than that: much of what threatens soil in this country is the lack of awareness on the part of the public about how precious soil health and agriculture are.
“We need to be changing the perception of farmers in our children and youth,” said Carolyn Wilson of the Canadian Young Farmers’ Forum in her address to the committee. “Some of the initiatives that Agriculture in the Classroom is doing include bringing young farmers into high schools or elementary schools — where the students are able to see that face, and think: “This could be me. It’s not just my grandfather, my uncle or what have you.”