Farmers Should be Recognized as being Carbon Net-Negative: Wheat Growers

Count the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association as another farm group unimpressed with the federal government’s proposed carbon tax credit.

In a statement Tuesday, the association said grain farmers pay tens of thousands of dollars in carbon tax directly and indirectly and the tax credit proposed as part of the government’s fall economic statement would return less than 25% of the costs incurred. Instead, grain farmers be recognized as being carbon net-negative, the association said.

A similar sentiment was also recently expressed by Grain Farmers of Ontario, the province‘s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario‘s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers,

With continued increases in the carbon tax, grain farmers are being hurt, Canada’s food security is at risk and Canada’s agriculture sector is increasingly less competitive with jurisdictions that do not have a carbon tax, the Wheat Growers said.

Given that Canadian grain farmers are amongst the most efficient and environmentally friendly in the world, the federal government should instead be holding them up to the rest of the world and demanding that other countries match them, said Wheat Growers Chair, Daryl Fransoo.

According to the Wheat Growers, grain farmers have made significant changes to the way they seed, harvest and maintain weed control, all of which has led to higher carbon sequestration, reduced water evaporation and loss of topsoil during windstorms. Auto-steer, improved inputs, precision seeding and fertilizer, as well as new seed varieties have all contributed to these improvements, it said.

“The federal government needs to explain to grain farmers why they are not being recognized for their decades of strong environmental protection and yet still face crippling financial penalties,“ said Wheat growers President, Gunter Jochum.