Ag Policy Connection – RealAgriculture

Competing in global commodity markets is a race Canada can’t win long-term, says Ted Bilyea, former executive vice-president of Maple Leaf Foods and distinguished fellow with the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI). In this episode of Ag Policy Connection, Bilyea says that Canada’s advantage lies in differentiation — creating food products consumers specifically want and... Read More

A staggering share of Canada’s food never gets eaten—and Lori Nikkel says that’s a systems problem, not an accident. In this episode of the Ag Policy Connection podcast, Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest, outlines why a national food waste strategy is critical to strengthening Canada’s food system. Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue organization,... Read More

Agriculture is often framed as an economic driver, but Alison Sunstrum says that Canada should treat it as something far more strategic: national security. In this conversation on the Ag Policy Connection podcast with co-hosts Tyler McCann and Elise Bigley of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI), Sunstrum—CEO of ConserveX, managing partner at NYA Ventures,... Read More

Global agriculture is navigating a period of profound geopolitical, economic, and environmental upheaval, raising urgent questions about how our food systems can remain sustainable, resilient, profitable, and for many, affordable. While politics and conflicts may divide nations and thicken borders, food — and the policies around how it is produced and where it goes —... Read More

Better management doesn’t just improve margins — it could reshape how Canada designs farm policy. In this episode of the Ag Policy Connection podcast, Tyler McCann and Elise Bigley of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute sit down with Terry Betker, founder of Backswath Management, to explore a deceptively simple but far-reaching idea: build a national... Read More

It's time to rethink how we fund plant breeding. While much of Canadian agriculture has evolved to meet today’s demands, the model for funding plant breeding is lagging—and risks falling behind entirely. That’s the concern raised by Jason Reinheimer, global head of cereals and pulse research at Limagrain Field Seeds, in this episode of the... Read More

This Ag Policy Connection episode features a wide-ranging conversation with Carlo Dade, Director of International Policy at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, on the future of Canadian agricultural trade amid profound global change. Dade outlines how Canada has entered a period of generational upheaval in international trade, driven by shifting U.S. policy,... Read More

Supply management has long provided price stability and income predictability for Canadian dairy and poultry producers, but its sustainability is under growing pressure. That’s the message from Greg Meredith, a retired senior civil servant who served in both federal and provincial agriculture ministries, in a new episode of the Ag Policy Connection podcast. In this... Read More

Farming has always been a risky business. Regardless of how carefully chosen a variety or fertility rate, Mother Nature always gets the last laugh. Now, with globally-integrated supply chains, market disruptions, and ever-higher stakes for input costs, Canada’s business risk management (BRM) programs are being pushed to evolve. But is the current public delivery model... Read More

After spending the past five episodes exploring what drives decisions around how land is used across Canada, we're looking to the future, highlighting the people and research shaping land-use policy in the next generation. The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute has selected four PhD candidates/doctoral fellows at schools across Canada to develop their skills and expertise... Read More

With farmland under pressure from urban expansion, conservation needs, and economic development, it raises the critical — and contentious — question: who should decide how land is used? Private landowners' rights are essential and rightfully expected in Canada, but there's also an argument to be made that the public has a stake in land-use decisions... Read More

Some parts of the country have seen more success protecting farmland than other regions, but when you add it up, Canada continues to lose an astonishing amount of farmland to urban expansion. The oft-cited statistic from the most recent Census of Agriculture is that Ontario alone loses an average of 319 acres of farmland every... Read More

When it comes to land use, some ways that land provides value are easy to measure and monetize, such as growing crops, raising livestock, or developing real estate. But other types of value, especially those that benefit broader society, like providing biodiversity, wildlife habitat preservation, carbon sequestration, and flood or fire risk mitigation, are much... Read More

Across much of Canada, there have traditionally been very few options for landowners to get paid for the overall value created by land conservation. Whether it's grassland, farmland, or a different form of natural habitat, the broader societal benefits of that land often go unrecognized. Instead, land is converted, sold, and developed for uses that... Read More

Land is a fundamental and finite resource, yet it is easy to overlook its value in our everyday lives. Canada may have an abundance of land, but those acres are under immense pressure to serve multiple purposes—residential and industrial development, food production, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, solar and wind energy generation, recreation, and more. As we... Read More

Hot on the heels of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute's conference on sustainability and agri-food, occasional Ag Policy Connection host, Shaun Haney, sat down with Tyler McCann, managing director of CAPI, Darlene McBain of FCC, and Sara Kate Smith of Clear Strategy, to unpack two days of policy panels, discussion, and insight. In this episode... Read More

A competitive advantage in the business world refers to factors that allow a company to produce goods or services for more value than their rivals. It's when a business is better at making, selling, and ultimately, profiting from a product than their competitors. Canada's agriculture and food sector, as a whole, has a strong story... Read More

Update: Grain workers who were on strike in Vancouver are returning to work as early as Saturday (Sept. 28) morning after reaching a tentative four year deal on Friday evening. Read more here. The timing couldn't be worse for a port strike and the union representing grain workers in the six main grain terminals in... Read More

Developing good ag policy that improves the long-term sustainability of Canadian agriculture — economic, environmental, and social — is a messy process that requires a mix of many things, including engaged stakeholders, good data to inform decisions, and enough people willing to take action and lead with long-term vision. This was clear as we discussed... Read More

Farmers and ranchers face many pressures to farm and raise animals in certain ways to meet sustainability-related goals of others, including food companies, lenders, and government. Clauses in crop contracts, carbon credits, government payments for rotational grazing or using nitrogen loss inhibitors, the federal fertilizer emissions reduction target, clean fuel standards, codes of practice, and... Read More

Methane emissions from cattle have received plenty of mainstream attention over the past decade, with calls to eat less beef often not accounting for the carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits of producing highly-nutritious food on grasslands. The panel in this episode of the Ag Policy Connection ruminates on how environmental policies can help or hinder... Read More

The term "agricultural extension" generally refers to the process of applying new research and knowledge to help farmers improve farming methods and techniques. While this concept has existed for thousands of years, the word "extension" itself dates back to the 1860s in England when universities made an attempt to extend practical information through lectures outside... Read More

Governments in many countries are enacting policies aimed at mitigating climate change — massive subsidies, carbon levies, and strict regulations — that also have consequences on trade flows. Billions of dollars of incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., the Canadian government's carbon taxes, and the EU's biofuel feedstock requirements and carbon border... Read More

There are many priorities that influence how land is used — the need for housing and economic development often drives the conversion of farmland and natural habitat into urban or suburban landscapes, but food security, productivity, biodiversity, crop or livestock prices, renewable energy policy, and of course, NIMBYism are among the many factors that can... Read More

When it comes to agriculture and the environment, some people see agriculture as a solution, while others view it as a problem. And in politics, people with different perspectives and levels of awareness about farming often sit in the same caucus or cabinet, influencing where a party stands on environmental policies that affect agriculture. Canada's... Read More

Canada is in the extremely fortunate position of having an abundance of one of the world's most critical resources — one that is often taken for granted, until there's not enough, or too much. Whether talking about multi-year droughts, algal blooms on Lake Erie, or economic potential through irrigation, there are massive opportunities and challenges... Read More

What's it going to take to maintain and grow Canadian agriculture in the future? After all, that's ultimately the definition of that word "sustainable" that we hear so often these days. Whether you consider yourself a full-fledged ag policy nerd or just dabble every now and then, we're excited to let you know that the... Read More

It was 2004, less than a year after BSE hit the Canadian cattle industry, when Canada's first outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) devastated poultry production in B.C. Without any playbook on how to manage the virus, a decision was made to cull all the birds on commercial farms in B.C.'s Fraser Valley. While... Read More

After decades of debate among farmers and politicians, it took less than 15 months for the machinery of the federal government to dismantle — some might describe it as steamroll — the Canadian Wheat Board's single desk following the Conservative majority in the 2011 federal election. The behind-the-scenes of how former federal Agriculture Minister Gerry... Read More

After undergoing some major changes through the '80s and '90s, business risk management (BRM) programs for farmers across Canada have remained largely the same for the last two decades. While there have been a few tweaks to AgriStability and its siblings in the BRM family of programs, AgriInsurance, and AgriInvest, the risks that farmers and... Read More

The winter of 2013-14 stands out in the minds of many who were involved in growing and marketing grain in Western Canada as the year of the massive grain backlog, as railways struggled to meet demand for moving crops from country elevators to export markets. With no access to water, like the St. Lawrence or... Read More

It's been nearly six years since Canada ratified a major trade agreement with its second largest trading partner, the European Union. While the deal has been hailed as an overall success, it has yet to live up to its potential when it comes to agricultural exports from Canada. At the time in 2017, it was... Read More

Much of what governments in Canada do when it comes to agriculture and farming falls under the umbrella of the "Ag Policy Framework" — the big agreements that federal, provincial, and territorial agriculture ministers have been signing roughly every five years going back to the early 2000s. With the latest iteration of the APF, known... Read More

Much of what we do at RealAgriculture is simply connecting dots — between different pieces of information and people and experiences — in an attempt to create a clearer picture of our world and the big issues in farming, ranching, and food. Creating that clearer picture often requires looking to the past to understand where... Read More