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Let’s reinforce Canada’s food supply
We must demand ambitious agricultural policies for climate
The campaign
Canadian and Quebec farmers are on the front lines of the impacts of climate change.
A new agricultural policy framework is currently being drawn up for the next five years and we all need to get involved to ensure that it will protect our food supply and that it lines up with the increasingly urgent ecological transition.
The latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report confirmed that rapid adaptation will be much less costly than the impacts caused by climate change. We need to act now.
Healthy soil and sustainable farming practices must be at the heart of framework's orientations in order to preserve and reinforce the resilience of our agricultural systems.
The future of our food supply hangs in the balance!
The opportunity
In July 2022, federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers will be meeting to finalize our new strategic agricultural framework. Équiterre is submitting a brief and is working hard to rally stakeholders and citizens to ensure that sustainable agriculture has a central place in the new strategic agricultural framework.
It's the perfect time reach out to our elected officials and tell them that our food supply is a priority.
Thank you for your participation!
Many of you participated in the campaign
- 4800 Thanks to you, the Ministers of Agriculture of Canada and Quebec have received close to 4800 e-mails asking to include the 5 priorities in the next agricultural policy framework.
“ Now more than ever, we must help our farmers adapt to climate change. The future of our food supply hangs in the balance! ”
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.
What solutions do we propose?
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.
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