Reading several speakers in the media, we sometimes have the impression that there is a unique way of doing agriculture and that the slightest deviation or breach of this paradigm threatens our ability to feed the world, as much at home in Canada than elsewhere on the planet. However, there are other ways to get there, and this, by derogating from what we are told on all the platforms.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
What we notice is that this model of agriculture that we call “conventional” is based on several very tenacious founding myths.
It’s because these myths are based on a seemingly indestructible argument: to feed humanity, you have to bet everything on a conventional agricultural model.
Yes, the threats of scarcity and famine are very real, but solving them can only be done by deconstructing one by one the threads of the system that currently maintains them.
Winston Churchill said it was better to take change by the hand before it grabbed you by the throat. With the growing challenges in agriculture and the growing climate crisis, this statement has never been so topical.
Fertile ground for change
One of the most important myths is that to feed the world, our agriculture must absolutely rely on chemical fertilizers and that we must secure their supply at all costs.
As we can see right now, the invasion of Ukraine is seriously threatening the supply of these products. The multinationals that sell it, well aware of the situation, take advantage of it to inflate their prices, which puts farmers in an untenable position.
What if we approached this critical situation differently? What if we took the opportunity to review our dependence on these fertilizers and consider other avenues to ensure soil fertility?
Because there are solutions that are accessible, proven and much less at the mercy of the global political and economic situation!
Without healthy soils, there is no food production. The sustainable agricultural practices favoring them are well known and their impacts demonstrated: healthy soils produce more nutritious food, make it possible to fight against climate change and adapt to it, and at the same time reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers. Fertilization planning that prioritizes soil health therefore makes it possible to act preventively.
In fact, Canada has set a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to nitrogen fertilizers (roughly, chemical fertilizers) of 30%. The current crisis is therefore a great opportunity to give ourselves the means to reach this target and to accelerate change by supporting the adoption of practices beneficial to soil health on Canada’s 190,000 farms.
The mirage of “always more”
Another founding myth of conventional agriculture is that we always have to make our agriculture more productive to feed a growing world population.
Our agriculture is already productive. In 2020, the Canadian agri-food system generated $139.3 billion, or about 7.4% of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). Our agricultural system thus generates a great income, but at what cost?
In Quebec, our agricultural land, which represents 2% of the territory, is exploited to produce corn and soybeans — precisely 75% of the areas cultivated in grains — in order to feed livestock intended for export. Meanwhile, nearly 900,000 Quebecers suffer from food insecurity and we waste 30% of our food every year in Canada. So let us ask ourselves the question: is this system, as productive as it is, really effective?
To feed the world, our agriculture must therefore be productive, but not at any price: it must above all be fairer and more sustainable. To achieve this, we must encourage the adoption of on-farm practices that promote healthy soils, make sure to limit food and nutritional waste from the field to the plate, adequately remunerate agricultural workers and redistribute the production of fairly, here as elsewhere.
Instead of seeking to systematically push the machine to its limits, even if it means employing means that contribute to the collapse of biodiversity and the climate crisis, we must instead employ nature-based practices that protect us against these great threats and which will therefore allow us to remain productive, but to be more effective!
Because, yes, sustainable agriculture can feed the world. This is what the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been saying for more than 13 years: “It is only with the sustainable intensification of agricultural production that we can make real progress towards […] reducing hunger and poverty and safeguarding the environment. »
In July, provincial agriculture ministers will meet to develop a new agricultural framework for the next five years. We ask that they open their horizons: another vision of agriculture is possible. It is time to act to shape it together.