The pulse industry should position itself as one of agriculture’s most sustainable cropping systems, say two Canadian researchers.
Agriculture Canada scientist Reynald Lemke told producers attending the Pulse Days portion of Crop Production Week in Saskatoon that rotations including pulses have a better environmental footprint than those relying strictly on cereal crops.
Pulses have lower nitrous oxide emissions than competing crops because they do not require nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrous oxide is one of the nastiest greenhouse gases.
However, the contribution goes beyond that. According to preliminary findings, a rotation including pulses could also increase soil quality and decrease carbon dioxide emissions, Lemke said.
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“All of these things add up to a nice indication of a more sustainable system,” he said, although he noted further research needs to be done on processing and handling before a complete answer is in place.
David Layzell, a researcher with the department of biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., agreed that the pulse industry needs to build on that inherent strength, selling consumers on the idea that eating pulses is good for the environment.
However, he noted that the reduction in nitrous oxide emissions associated with pulses isn’t as great as scientists think it could be.
Layzell suspects that is because legumes produce large amounts of hydrogen in the soil, which has the positive effect of enhancing soil fertility but the downside of boosting nitrous oxide emissions.
He believes breeders can engineer pulses to enhance their natural soil carbon contributions while minimizing their nitrous oxide emissions, making the crops an even better choice for the environment.
Layzell encouraged the industry to promote other strengths as well.
He noted that the livestock sector is one of the heaviest polluters in agriculture, contributing seven billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually on a global basis.
If the demand for livestock production was replaced by pulses one day per week in developed countries, it would result in a 255 million tonne annual reduction in greenhouse gases, which is equivalent to Canada’s entire Kyoto commitment.
“One can use the sustainability of pulses to create a marketing campaign that would actually get many environmentally conscious consumers more interested in saying, ‘maybe I should have one or two meals a week where I will have a vegetarian meal,’ ” said Layzell.
He said the pulse industry should promote the idea that consumers can improve their health and that of the environment by substituting meat for high protein crops such as lentils, peas, chickpeas and beans.
Pulse Canada is heeding the advice of researchers like Lemke and Layzell. In October, the association hired former Canadian Wheat Board employee Gord Kurbis as director of environment.
“The pulse industry has had some good foresight in saying, ‘OK, there’s a whole bunch of (environmental concern) out there. It’s beginning to apply to food and we need to be positioned once the interest really takes off,’ ” Kurbis said.
He noted that there are indexes in the United Kingdom that rank food based on its sustainability. In North America, major companies such as Wal-Mart and McDonald’s are going green in a pre-emptive move to appeal to tomorrow’s consumers.
They know changes are coming in consumer behaviour.
“We want to do our best to determine in what form those changes are likely to present themselves and then make sure that we’re positioned to tell the pulse industry’s good environmental story when it happens,” Kurbis said.
