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We must demand ambitious climate policies for our agriculture
A new agricultural policy framework is currently being drawn up for the next five years, and we all need to get involved. Our food systems and our fertile lands are at stake.
We all need to eat. We all must speak up and have our say about the decisions that affect our food supply.
Agricultural sector in transformation
Much of the farming community agrees on the importance of not simply preserving our agricultural ecosystems but of making them more vibrant and resilient. By adopting practices that promote healthy soil, farms are securing their yields and becoming much more resilient – which is to say, they are better able to adapt to and overcome the impacts of climate change, in turn having a positive impact on our food security.
Governments must put soil health at the heart of their policies. Farmers need public and government support to accelerate this transition. In Canada, investment in agri-environmental programs is 73 times lower than in the European Union and 13 times lower than in the United States. We must do better! The future of our food supply hangs in the balance!
Now is the time to act. Federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers will be finalizing our new strategic agricultural framework in July, determining the support programs that will be available to farmers until 2028.
Équiterre is working hard to ensure that the Canadian framework lines up with the increasingly urgent ecological transition. We will soon be submitting a brief with recommendations urging our governments to put sustainable agriculture front and centre in the new strategic agricultural framework.
Add your voice to ours to reinforce our food supply
Here’s what you can do to help ensure that our new strategic agricultural framework protects our farms and our food supply:
Send this pre-written letter with Équiterre’s demands to Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Quebec’s Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, André Lamontagne, and to your local elected representatives;
Talk to your friends and family about how important it is that we have a strong strategic agricultural framework, focused on the climate, and share our campaign on social media.
Why must we protect our farms?
The impacts of climate change are increasingly being felt by our farmers. Extreme weather events, disastrous crop and livestock losses and declining farm yields are just some of the many challenges. Last year, canola output was down nearly 50% and wheat output was down 40% in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
In southwestern Quebec, one of our most fertile agricultural regions, experts estimate that we are losing 2 cm of black earth every year. If nothing is done, they predict that there will be none left in 50 years.
Our farmlands are scarce and precious! Only 2% of Quebec’s soil is cultivable.
Solutions exist. It’s high time that we implement them!
In our brief, Équiterre will propose the following recommendations, which we encourage you to send to our ministers in our pre-written letter.
that support be given to farmers to transition to sustainable agricultural practices;
that access to financial support programs be contingent on meeting environmental requirements through the Environmental Farm Plan;
that a strategy and an action plan be put in place for the independent transfer of knowledge about sustainable practices among farmers;
that the necessary resources be committed to implementing an adaptation and mitigation strategy addressing the impacts of climate change on our farms;
that the framework be guided by a healthy food autonomy strategy.
Please support our recommendations to reinforce our food supply
Take action
