Canada’s farmers and ranchers rank closely-linked issues of climate change and input costs as top challenges over the next decade, suggesting alignment of climate goals and producers’ economic concerns.
“Becoming more resilient and reducing our emissions on farms is often really closely tied to reducing our dependence on inputs, especially fertilizers and fossil fuels,” Brent Preston, president of Farmers for Climate Solutions (FCS), told The Energy Mix.
The ranking came from a poll FCS recently conducted with farmers and ranchers across Canada to get an idea of their perceptions about environmental sustainability and climate change. Preston said there weren’t good past polls reflecting that information, which is important for understanding the kinds of support producers need and the practices they’re interested in.
Talking about finding ways to reduce producer dependence on inputs (things that farmers often must source externally such as fuel and fertilizer)—and finding “a way to reduce that input bill that is just going up every year”—can be “a really short way to get to emission reduction” without wading into politically fraught conversations about reducing emissions.
Some key trends identified in the poll show that producers are already experiencing severe weather events and are concerned about future climate change impacts, though the leading cause of concern reported was that this would “lead to more restrictive policies or regulations.” Impacts on farm incomes and yields were secondary and tertiary concerns.
The majority of farmers and ranchers acknowledge climate change, but hold varied opinions about its cause. In the FCS poll, 86.7% responded that they view themselves as good environmental stewards, with 46.6% agreeing they can do more to improve environmental outcomes on their farms and ranches. While environmental stewardship matters, improving profitability and productivity were the leading motivators for farmers and ranchers to adopt new practices.
Climate change was reported as the top challenge over the next decade, according to 17.9% of respondents, and 5.8% separately noted severe weather events. While input costs were a close second across the country—reported as the top challenge by 17.2% of respondents—producers in Western Canada were more concerned about input costs than climate change.
Because these challenges are so closely aligned, Preston said the information from the poll could help to “meet farmers where they’re at and can help them address their really pressing economic concerns, and at the same time get much better climate outcomes.”
This alignment of climate goals and producers’ economic concerns was previously reflected in the Prairie Farmer & Rancher Forum hosted by FCS this past winter. At that event, three dozen farmers and ranchers from Canada’s Prairies agreed on ways to support sustainable farming practices despite holding diverse opinions on climate change. Preston said the recent poll underlines how outcomes from the forum can be applied across the farming sector.
“I think we really are starting to get a better understanding of what is the best way to talk about these issues and what is the best way to motivate farmers,” he said, “what are the concerns that they have that we can really help them address,” while also tackling climate issues.
A total of 898 farmers and ranchers from a variety of production types, scales, and regions across Canada answered the poll, with 858 completing it in full. FCS noted that racialized and Indigenous farmers were underrepresented, though a significant number of respondents did not disclose their ethnicity. Quebec and Saskatchewan were somewhat overrepresented in the poll, while Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. were underrepresented compared to the proportion of the Canadian agricultural population living in these provinces—and no respondents were located in the territories. Crop and dairy farmers were also overrepresented while other producers were underrepresented.
