A new survey shows Canadian farmers are concerned about the environment and are taking steps to right the wrongs of the past.
According to an Ipsos Reid poll of 1,000 Canadian farmers conducted on behalf of the Crop Nutrients Council, almost all crop producers use at least one beneficial nutrient management practice and half use two or more.
“Anyone who thinks that farmers don’t care about these issues is out of tune with what’s going on in the country,” said Clyde Graham, executive director of the council, which is a coalition of grain companies, fertilizer manufacturers, government agencies and environmental groups.
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Graham said farmers have been blamed for polluting important bodies of water with their phosphate fertilizers and manure from intensive livestock operations.
That type of negative publicity has given rise to the perception that farmers don’t care about the environment.
But according to the Ipsos Reid poll, there has been a vast improvement in farming habits since the 1930s with the widespread adoption of environmentally friendly practices like soil testing, minimum tillage and manure management plans.
“This study confirms that farmers are good environmental stewards, working hard to manage nutrients for their crops in a responsible manner,” said Brian Besley, chair of Agricultural Groups Concerned About Resources and the Environment.
Ann Coxworth, program co-ordinator with the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, said the survey demonstrates there is an increasing awareness of environmental issues.
But she cautioned against assuming that the council’s definition of beneficial management practices provide a net benefit to the environment.
“Our organic farm friends are concerned that when people move to zero till they end up using more herbicide,” she said.
Coxworth said the zero till approach has value in terms of controlling greenhouse gas emissions but she worries about some of the environmental damage caused by the use of farm chemicals.
A majority of the farmers surveyed by Ipsos Reid reported a net economic gain by using best management practices like zero till, nutrient management plans and variable rate fertilization. The exception was the use of buffer strips, which do little to improve the bottom line.
Despite realizing these economic gains, about three-quarters of farmers feel there should be government incentives for implementing these types of practices on their farms.
A small minority expects all costs to be covered, but most feel 26-50 percent coverage would be acceptable.
“Canadian farmers have been engaging in environmental stewardship for a long time because they believe it is the right thing to do. But they have been bearing the cost of those initiatives mostly alone,” said Bob Friesen, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
“It is time for consumers and governments to recognize that agricultural environmental stewardship is a public good that benefits everyone, so the costs must be shared by everyone.”
Another finding of the survey was that most farmers who have tried a best management practice plan continue with it over the next one to three years. The responses varied from 58 percent planning to repeat variable rate fertilization to 83 percent intending to plant buffer strips in subsequent years.
“The important thing is once they adopt, they’re not abandoning it,” said Graham.
