It’s a pivotal moment for Canadian agriculture, with geopolitical, economic and environmental issues creating tension in the agriculture economy.
A need to change was one of the themes at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute’s (CAPI) Canadian Agri-Food in a Risky World Conference. Throughout the two-day gathering in Ottawa, panelists, experts and dignitaries spoke about what a critical moment is being faced by Canadian agriculture.
Why it matters: How Canadian agriculture responds to the current market and geopolitical challenges will help determine Canada’s future food security and prosperity.
“The headwinds that we’re facing today, I think, are stronger than they’ve been in my time in the sector,” said Tyler McCann, CAPI’s managing director. “They should be the call to action that we need to do things differently.”
He said the unpredictability of export markets, government budgets and other factors have made risks high within the sector.
“All of these things are happening at the same time (and) create this inflection point, this hinge moment that we’re in.”
Risk and change are inevitable
Many speakers agreed the need for change is inevitable, no matter what discussion surrounds it.
Farm Management Canada (FMC) Executive Director Heather Watson said risk and change are inevitable in agriculture, but the need for that change now is more pressing than it has been before.
“We’ve lost markets before, but I think it’s just kind of everything coming together at once,” Watson said. “I think it heightens the awareness, and therefore it makes it a really good time to have the conversation.”
“We can’t anticipate everything, but you can kind of work your crystal ball in terms of, what if this happened?” She called this “the base of contingency planning.”
Watson spoke on a panel about managing risk at the farm level along with FMC Program Manager Mathieu Lipari, who said this moment, driven by trade tensions from the U.S. and China, is being widely recognized as a turning point.
“Everybody’s been saying it’s time for Canada to pivot, in many ways.”
With farmers worried about the risks of the moment, Lipari said it is important to keep their welfare in mind as Canada faces these changes.
“That’s the crucial side right now that we need to explore, how do we make sure that farms remain viable in the new context? And that means that there needs to be some pivots here and there.”
Watson said the unfortunate reality is that negative experiences are often the ones that create change and inspire innovation.
Risk drives change
Karen Ross, executive director of Farmers for Climate Solutions, spoke as part of a panel about how issues like unpredictable weather and low commodity prices represent a need for change. The problem is that the necessary changes can sometimes feel daunting.
“From a producer perspective, taking on a new practice or a new technology that can build resilience on your farm can actually feel very risky in the short term,” she said. “Demands for farmers around sustainability, if not matched with the right kinds of support can actually be another kind of short-term risk.”
She used cover-cropping as an example, which she said can lead to many benefits like improved water management and fewer yield losses for crops planted in a future spring.
Even with incentives, something like cover-cropping can be a short-term risk. A possible solution to this, she said, is better data-sharing to understand risk equations.
Risks that double as opportunities go beyond the field level: In a panel on navigating the market and consumer expectations, Dorothy Long, managing director of Canadian Food Focus, discussed the newfound risks and potential benefits of generative artificial intelligence in communicating with consumers.
She said the prevelance of AI search results on engines like Google has made it difficult for organizations to make their information available. However, Canada Food Focus has leveraged its different farm organizations to appeal to the AI algorithm.
“That is huge. It’s a huge opportunity for us, not only because I think for the first time, we really had the chance to address misinformation, but also to be able to inform and influence Canadians.”
The role of government
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Heath MacDonald made an appearance to speak about the role government can play in helping farmers through uncertain times.
“We’ve always had trade issues over the course of time, but nothing like we’re seeing now,” MacDonald said. “I see it as a major challenge, obviously, but I also see it as an opportunity.”
MacDonald said threats coming out of the U.S. could provide an opportunity for change within the sector, including reducing barriers finding new markets for Canadian agri-food exports.
Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. Photo: Jonah Grignon
“It’s just a different world that we live in, and we have to be best prepared,” he said. “I see it as sometimes these things are making people move a little quicker, and bureaucracy being one (example), I think people are seeing that we all need to work together.”
Canada needs more research and data
Throughout the conference’s discussions, speakers broadly agreed on two ideas: the time for change is now, and to make that change happen, Canada will need more research funding and better data access.
Lawrence Hanson, deputy minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said Canada is behind the curve on research and development.
“We traditionally have lagged for … a reasonably well-understood set of reasons, right? Which was, we had a lot of natural resources, we had a valuable currency exchange and sat on the doorstep of the world’s largest market.”
Amanda Richardson, interim executive director of the Centre for Agri-Food Benchmarking spoke about how data will help further Canadian agri-food trade interests.
“As we look at different trading partners and different markets, we need to become more appealing to those partners,” she said. “We can tell our story about Canadian agriculture, but having the data and the proof points that backs it up is incredibly helpful.”
Mark Redmond, CEO of Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR) put it most succinctly: “The biggest risk really comes down to not doing things differently.”
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