Canada has a good story to tell about grain production sustainability but few know about it.
The Canadian roundtable for sustainable crops includes growers, commodity groups, processors and food companies involved with grains, oilseeds and pulses. Much of their work is outward looking because requirements are often based on what the international market wants rather than addressing consumer questions.
“Standard-based protocols exist for the grain industry and they exist because of some pressure in the market,” said Susie Miller, the sole staff member for the crops roundtable.
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Unilever introduced a sustainability program because it was under pressure because of palm oil production, she said at the Canadian Roundtable for sustainable beef annual meeting in Calgary held Sept. 20.
The group wants to develop relevant on-farm sustainability measurements to improve environmental, social and economic well-being.
While the beef program has a large focus on on-farm food safety and sound environmental practices, the grain sector had fewer participants because there did not seem to be the same market pressures.
“The market requirements or incentives don’t seem to be there,” she said.
Fewer crop producers have completed environmental farm plans so individual farmer certification is probably much further away.
Each commodity group has its own sustainability goals but the round table has agreed on 12 different targets to address continuous improvement for environmental, economics and social responsibility aims.
These cover areas like nutrient management, soil quality and productivity to monitor erosion, compaction and soil organic carbon.
Water use is more focused on sustainable irrigation.
Labour relations for the grain sector may differ from livestock because workers are often family members.
“We changed it to work safety because on the majority of Canadian grain farms, work is done by owners and their family members,” Miller said.
The group has gathered reliable information on greenhouse gas emissions but there is limited data on good practices to manage waste.
Miller admits there is poor performance in the management of land and biodiversity.
Research gaps and priorities have been identified.
There are many researchers working on crops sustainability but their results are not being used.
The round table is interested in what they have found so results can be put into practice and used to educate producers.
The round table has produced a list of good practices or indicators and the next step is testing the program with Cargill and Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan. Some commodity groups also adopted it to test it among members.
