The voluntary code of practice shows Canadian farmers’ care and commitment to the environment
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Recently, representatives from the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Crops (CRSC) reached out to famers looking for their comments on the Responsible Grain document.
This document is a national voluntary code of practice that demonstrates Canadian farmers’ sustainable farming practices and care for the environment.
“At the end of the day, what it really is, is a baseline of practices that we as growers are either already doing or practices that we can easily adopt on our farms,” said Jason Lenz.
He is a director with the Alberta Wheat Commission and the Alberta farmer representative on the development committee for Responsible Grain. Along with Lenz, several other members of the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions were involved in creating the code of practice.
“You could say (the commissions are) fully invested in the code. We know the importance of it and the purpose of it,” he said.
The Responsible Grain document is in the draft stage and the CRSC reps and reps from organizations involved in creating the document now want farmers to give their input on the document, said Lenz.
“The consultation plan was always to have public consultation and we were going to do town hall meetings and gather people together, but COVID-19 happened and changed that. So, our consultation process right now is going to be 100 per cent virtual,” Lenz told Farms.com. “We really want to take (Responsible Grain) to farmers and to other people in the ag industry to really ensure that it is a tool that can be used to show the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic and social.”
Farmers are encouraged to participate in the online consultations, but they do need to register for an online introductory session in January 2021 to do so.
“We want to encourage all farmers and everyone in the grain sector to spend a little bit of time looking at this document, providing inputs where they can,” said Lenz. “For individual farmers, we really want to make sure it makes sense to them.”
Photo credit: Responsible Grain photo