Farmers are growing bigger crops with less cost to the planet, says a study organized by Pulse Canada.
That’s good news because food retailing and food manufacturing companies are being pressed to prove that their products are sustainable, and the pressure is reaching all the way back to the farm.
“We have people, customers, consumers who are asking us about what it is that we do and where can we go and what does our supply chain look like around sustainability,” Tom Rabaey of General Mills said at the Prairie Oat Growers Association annual meeting in Winnipeg Dec. 1.
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Pulse Canada chief executive officer Gordon Bacon unveiled a report at the oat conference that looks at eight prairie crops over 20 years and analyzes their environmental impact.
In all eight cases, more crop is being produced per unit of impact on the world’s environment.
“I think it’s an amazing story. We have some rigorous scientific evaluation of data for the last 20 years that basically says in every category we have made improvements, we are producing more with less.”
Bacon said the gains mostly come from yield gains, which results in each acre producing more food. Those yield gains come from genetics, better farming practices, better chemicals and fertilizers and better use of machinery and inputs.
Rotations have also improved in the last 20 years, with millions of acres of pulse crops joining the prairie roster.
There was much talk at the conference about increasing consumer demand and the opportunity for food products to prove themselves beneficial for human health and the environment.
Specialized food products are growing in popularity in western countries, while consumers in developing nations are joining the ranks of the luxury-buying population.
The Canadian study follows a similar U.S. study that included environmental, food industry and farm groups.
Bacon said the next step should be to hire staff and more formally develop a sustainability focused group within the agriculture and food industry.
“I think we have grown past Pulse Canada being the lead to start some of this,” said Bacon.
“This is a systems approach and I hope as an industry we can sort out some of the questions.”
Pulse Canada’s work was supported with funding from the federal government and Crop Life Canada and the moral support of Grain Growers of Canada, the Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian Canola Growers Association and the flax industry.
Bacon said the U.S. system allows producers to check their farm’s results against state and national averages.
