A British Columbia greenhouse grower doesn’t know how much greener her tomatoes can get.
When the price of natural gas that heats Sarah Rwall’s 18-acre greenhouse in Delta rose to $8 from $2 a gigajoule, she installed a 2.5-million-litre heat storage tank to capture heat used during the day to reuse at night.
The heat storage unit dropped Gipaanda Greenhouses’ gas use to 180,000 from 240,000 gigajoules a year.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
In 2006 the family installed energy curtains on the greenhouse walls and roof to prevent heat from escaping on dark or dull days.
The energy blankets dropped their gas use a further 40,000 gigajoules to 140,000.
“We’ve made huge strides in our energy reduction,” said Rwall, who is chair of the British Columbia Greenhouse Growers Association.
“We’ve reduced our energy use by half since 2000.”
A new carbon tax that the provincial government introduced July 1 as a way to persuade residents to use less gasoline, diesel, natural gas, heating fuel, propane and coal will hit greenhouse growers hard.
In the first year, users will pay a 50 cent a gigajoule tax on natural gas. Within three years, the carbon tax will jump to $1.50 a gigajoule.
Rwall said she isn’t opposed to energy reduction but doesn’t know what more greenhouses can do to reduce energy use and avoid the tax.
Mary Margaret Gaye, executive director of the British Columbia Greenhouse Growers Association, estimates the carbon tax on natural gas will cost greenhouse growers $1.5 million in the first year and $5 million within three years.
“Our sector is one of the most severely hit,” she said.
Growing vegetables in greenhouses is a large energy user. Over the past few years, larger greenhouses have switched from natural gas to forms of biomass, such as burning waste wood from the province’s forest industry, but it’s an expensive investment and greenhouses still need natural gas for the carbon dioxide that increases plant growth.
Rwall estimates it would cost $2 million to switch her greenhouse from gas to biomass.
Many of the vegetables grown in B.C. greenhouses are exported to the United States and other provinces that don’t have a carbon tax. Rwall doesn’t see how she can pass the additional tax on to her customers.
“We’re price takers. We can’t increase the cost of vegetables. If our prices on our vegetables go up, consumers switch to produce from Mexico and California.”
Gaye said her organization has asked the provincial government to find alternatives to the carbon tax but doesn’t hold much hope that greenhouse growers will be given a reprieve. Instead, she expects the tax will bite into profits.
“It’s pretty devastating for our sector,” she said.
“There really is not a lot of room for increased conservation.”
Ranching is another industry hit hard by the carbon tax, said Roland Baumann, president of the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association.
He said producers have already looked for ways to reduce fuel costs.
“Everybody in the cattle business has already reduced their fuel consumption to the absolute minimum.”
This year, Baumann switched his hay truck from gas to diesel in an effort to become more efficient. The 100 kilometre trips to Prince George for parts and produce are kept to a minimum.
He said the provincial government made it clear from the beginning that there would be no exemptions from the carbon tax, including agriculture.
When a carbon credit trading system comes into effect in the future, Baumann hopes agriculture producers may be able to take advantage of their grassland sequestration to help offset the tax.
Steve Thomson, executive director of the B.C. Agriculture Council, said the group has made several presentations to government officials but has not managed to deflect the carbon tax away from agriculture.
“We continue to make our concerns known to the government,” he said. “There is no immediate fix here.”
