A new course called Agriculture 101 may help ease conflicts between farmers and energy companies.
Tensions are growing over water protection, access to land and cumulative impacts on farmland when oil rigs, gas wells, compressors, roads and pipelines crisscross the Alberta landscape.
“Many producers are losing control over the very resource they have relied upon for years. We can expect the ‘not in my backyard’ attitude to be a very common obstacle in negotiations,” said Tricia Palmer of Alberta Agriculture and developer of the course.
It was rolled out at the annual Canadian Society of Unconventional Gas meeting in Calgary Nov. 15-17. It proposes to give land agents, contractors and energy companies a basic understanding about agriculture.
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It is intended to improve communication and respect when companies want to enter a field where they hold a subsurface lease. It also allows farmers and ranchers a means to vent concerns.
“This is an opportunity for landowners to have some real influence into how this development works,” said Dave Morris of Quicksilver Resources Canada, also involved with the course.
Developed by Alberta Agriculture, energy companies, Synergy Alberta, as well as the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, it is hoped the course may resolve conflicts before they start, said Palmer.
While some complained the program was too simplistic and general, others said it was a good start toward encouraging Alberta’s two largest industries to coexist.
The course provides information about the size of the farm economy, types of crops, maps of 44 different agriculture regions and a timeline so companies know when it is most appropriate to approach a landowner about a surface agreement.
The course emphasizes the need to treat farmers and ranchers like equal business partners.
Fewer people in the oil patch have an agriculture background. That has led to problems with poor communication among the sectors competing for land, said Mike Dawson of the society.
Coalbed methane has especially raised the ire of farmers. Most of the action is east of Highway 2 that links Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton, in the middle of prime agriculture land where there are nearly 7,000 wells.
“Historically the energy industry, I believe, has done a very poor job of responding to the needs of other stakeholders and extolling the virtues of the good things the energy industry is doing. We have been very poor communicators,” he said in an interview.
“We are adjusting the way we do business in how we recognize stakeholder relations.”
