Party leaders have shown little interest in agriculture so far. However, serious threats hang over the agricultural lands of Quebec.
On his farm in Brownsburg-Chatham, in the heart of the Laurentians, the “garden of Quebec”, cattle producer Stéphane Guay has never been in such a hurry to accelerate the turn taken to save the wealth of his most beautiful land.
Two years ago, tests revealed that some of his 160 hectares of fields had become “resistant” to herbicides. The level of organic matter there was in free fall. “I did everything without help, to reverse what we had been doing here for three generations. We’ve always thought of “yield per acre”, not to mention the enormous amounts of fertilizers and their impact on the environment. Converted to regenerative agriculture and green manures—these plants that fix nitrogen and other nutrients to nourish the soil—this happy cattle and soybean producer has found his smile again since investing in the future and the ” health” of his land.
In its verdant meadows now grow plantain, clover, chicory, daikon and other delicacies for choosy cattle. The 85 cows of the Guayclair farm and their young now frolic in the open air, grazing 45 hectares of natural pasture, where perennials and fruit trees grow, which regenerate the soil “for free”. No more doses of dewormers for its beautiful ruminants, whose dung, once sterile, is now filled with micro-organisms that revitalize its land.
“It’s sad that the parties are not concerned about that and put so little emphasis on the fate of what feeds people,” laments Stéphane Guay.
A few dozen kilometers away, some of the blackest soil in the St. Lawrence plain crumbles. Some have lost up to 1 meter of fertile soil in 50 years, a consequence attributable to poor agricultural practices. If nothing is done, in 60 years, they will have disappeared. The threat hanging over the pantry of Quebecers does not seem to shake the candidates, he notes with astonishment.
The impact of the plan for sustainable agriculture launched in 2020 by the CAQ remains marginal for the moment, thinks Stéphane Guay. “It’s good to have a program to adopt green manures, but within hours all the subsidies were used up,” he says. Only 1,800 of the 29,000 farms in Quebec were able to benefit from amounts to stop the deterioration of their land.
Near Sorel, cereal and grain producer Paul Caplette is also not kind to politicians’ promises. “There aren’t many people who come to the field here in rubber boots to understand our challenges. It took some elbow grease to cultivate its 360 hectares (corn, soybeans, corn and legumes) without fertilizers, reduce the use of pesticides by 30%, and slash its emissions by a third. of GHG. “I did better than Quebec and without help. But it took 40 years! he points out. We fully subsidize organic, but not those who work to be more sustainable and feed a lot more people for less. »
An opinion shared by Carole-Anne Lapierre, food systems specialist at Équiterre. “It would be better to support more farms that tend to be more sustainable than to ‘focus’ on the organic sector, which reaches very few people. »
Autonomy or self-sufficiency?
In the bouquet of electoral promises, food autonomy has become a leitmotif. And for good reason, Quebec being very far from the mark. Quebecers only consume 35% of what is grown on their territory, and the rest is exported, according to a report produced in 2020 for the CIRANO group. Autonomy climbs to 51%, if we include food prepared here… with imported products.
Only 2% of land in Quebec has agricultural zoning, and half is monopolized by the cultivation of grains and oilseeds (soya, canola, sunflower) intended for three-quarters of livestock (73%). The Quebec agricultural model is far from being able to feed its population, says Patrick Mundler, author of this report and professor of agri-food economics at Laval University.
François Legault said he was shocked that Quebec imported half of its grocery basket during his visit to the Union of Agricultural Producers. His government, like the previous ones, nevertheless fully finances the sectors planned for export. In front of the same floor, the curator Éric Duhaime apologized for having already shunned supply management. As for the solidarity Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, he sowed concern with his proposed 35% tax on estates of more than a million dollars, while an average farm is worth triple in Quebec. “Farms will be exempt,” he said the next day.
Feed Quebec
Several electoral programs evade certain fundamental questions, believes Patrick Mundler. “We must also question the use of our land. We export to live, but we have to import to eat,” he notes. A reality recently exacerbated by the health crisis and the war in Ukraine. Almost all the parties promise to stop the dezoning, but avoid the essence, he thinks. “The law protects the quantity of land, but not the quality or diversity of crops. We don’t care who grows what, or who abuses pesticides or fertilizers. »
Under the pretext of aiming for food self-sufficiency – a concept not specified in several programs – the parties, in particular the CAQ and the PQ, are proposing to multiply greenhouse cultivation. “To fully subsidize two or three giants so that they produce tomatoes or cucumbers in greenhouses all year round, but which will have to import more labour, pesticides and machinery to do so, is that really that autonomy? asks the economist.
Putting culture under glass is also incongruous from an environmental point of view, thinks Carole-Anne Lapierre. “A tomato produced in a greenhouse here generates more GHGs than one grown in Mexico. Greenhouses are energy-intensive, they require more fertilizers and materials. It would be more sustainable to favor simple systems and encourage people to eat more seasonal vegetables. »
Food autonomy over the shoulder, the Legault government paid $3 million to PepsiCo to produce “local chips” and $2 million to Kraft to simmer ketchup in Quebec. “Autonomy must not become a pretext for everything; it may be a good choice for the local economy, but not for health,” said Ms.me Stone. “We need to do more than replace food from elsewhere with food from here, we also need to produce in a sustainable way,” says Mr. Mundler.
Invest in knowledge
The growth of the MAPAQ budget, from $484 million to $684 million in four years, has resulted in a jump in subsidies under the Legault government. In this campaign, the CAQ promised to add 50 million to help young farmers and 100 million to its sustainable agriculture plan. But the agronomist and whistleblower Louis Robert – who denounced the influence of the pesticide and fertilizer lobby with the MAPAQ and agronomists – judges that the parties are missing the boat by promising to make subsidies rain. “Farmers have a much greater need for technology transfers and know-how to improve their soils. Knowledge makes it possible to reduce the use of pesticides by 40%,” he says. “For the same crops, in Quebec we fertilize three times more than Ontario, and six times more than the United States. It is not normal. »
One thing is certain, Denys Van Winden, a market gardener from Sherrington who has been working for years with researchers to save the black soils in his corner of Montérégie, is not fooled. “I have never received a penny for this and I have not yet seen a politician come here to see what is happening. For me, it is clear that we should not vote for what we are promised tomorrow morning, but for those who will save our lands for the next generations. »