“Let them eat cake” seems to be the message from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The princely prime minister wrapped up meetings with provincial ministers on Friday, signaling that he will move forward to reduce the permitted use of fertilizers by Canadian farmers as his next step in the fight against climate change.
The Trudeau government wants a 30% cut in emissions, but agricultural experts say you can’t reduce nitrous oxide emissions without reducing fertilizer use, which will hurt your ability to stay in the farming business. Farmers also say this will result in Canada producing less food and will cause food shortages at a time when there are already global food shortages.
In 2021, the agricultural and agri-food system employed 2.1 million people, provided 1 in 9 jobs in Canada, generated $134.9 billion (about 6.8%) of Canada’s gross domestic product, according to the Canadian government.
“The world is looking to Canada to increase production and be a solution to global food shortages. The federal government needs to show they understand this,” said Alberta Agriculture Minister Nate Horner. “They owe it to our growers.”
Horner said this year’s crops are the most expensive ever planted, “after a very difficult year on the prairies.”
“We are really concerned about this arbitrary target,” Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit said. “The Trudeau government has apparently stopped attacking the oil and gas industry and has set its sights on Saskatchewan farmers.”
The reduction of fertilizer emissions was not on the agenda of the annual meeting of Federal-Provincial-Territorial agriculture ministers. The provinces pressed the federal government to discuss this issue and were disappointed to learn that Trudeau had already set the 30% target.
“The commitment of future consultations is only to determine how to meet the objective that Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister [Marie-Claude] Bibeau has already unilaterally imposed on this industry, not consulting on what can be achieved or achieved,” the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan said in a combined statement. Bibeau is the nation’s agriculture minister.
“Farmers in Western Canada already produce the most sustainable agri-food products in the world and are continually being asked to do more with less. We cannot feed the growing world population with a reduction in fertilizers,” the provincial leaders said. “Growers in Western Canada base fertilizer inputs on realistic targets based on moisture availability. Growers are conservative in their use of fertilizers and do not add more than is needed. They simply cannot bear the impact of this short-sighted policy alone.”
Canada is a net exporter of staple foods such as cereals. It has 0.5% of the world’s population, but produces about 1.5% of the world’s food, while consuming about 0.6% of the world’s food production.
Sri Lanka has been the test kitchen for the organic-only policy. In 2021, President Rajapaksa forbidden imports of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, which forced millions of farmers in that country to go organic, practically overnight. The result has been disastrous, with widespread food shortages, social unrest and ultimately a protest that took over the capital and forced the resignation of the government.
Sri Lankan scientists and agricultural experts had warned of dire consequences for many crops, such as cocoa, coffee, soybeans and other basic foods.
In Sri Lanka, rice production fell by 20 percent in the six months after the organic-only policy was implemented. Instead of feeding itself, the country spent $450 million on rice imports. Tea production, which is the country’s biggest export, fell 18 percent. The people of Sri Lanka now face imminent starvation.