If there’s one thing that can be said about the Liberals, it’s that when they put their minds to something, there’s virtually nothing that can stop them.
Unfortunately, the Trudeau government has been almost singularly focused on its crusade against climate change, even at the expense of the well-being of Canadians and our geopolitical interests. Its decision to force farmers to
reduce fertilizer use at a time of high inflation and increasing food insecurity is another example of a government that turns a blind eye to the human and economic costs of its climate policies.
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Rising inflation coupled with shortages of numerous commodities are causing very real problems, at home and abroad. In June,
Statistics Canada reported that the cost of food had risen 8.8 per cent in the previous year.
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Instead of addressing that problem, however, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is ploughing ahead with its plan to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, a byproduct of nitrogen-based fertilizers, by 30 per cent over the next eight years. This became a flashpoint late last week following a meeting of federal and provincial agriculture ministers in Saskatoon, and anger has been growing since.
The Liberals' decision to force farmers to reduce fertilizer use at a time of high inflation and increasing food insecurity is another example of a government that turns a blind eye to the human and economic costs of its climate policies
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According to the
Government of Saskatchewan, the provinces had to push to get the fertilizer issue onto the agenda, only to find out that the target had already been set.”The Trudeau government has apparently moved on from their attack on the oil and gas industry and set their sights on Saskatchewan farmers,” said Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit.
Farm industry groups say there’s simply no viable way to reduce nitrous oxide emissions without reducing the use of fertilizers, which will lower crop yields.
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As Gunter Jochum, president of Western Canadian Wheat Growers,
pointed out, “Farmers don’t need the government to tell them how to properly use fertilizer.” Yet they are the ones who will be footing the bill: according to
an independent study from MNP, the policy will cost Canadian farmers over $48 billion in lost revenue from Canola, corn and wheat sales over the next eight years.
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Along with the development of high-yield crops and effective pesticides, the use of industrial fertilizers can be credited with the world’s ability to
feed more people than ever. Over the past 70 years, the global population increased 204 per cent, yet modern farming techniques, including the use of fertilizers, has allowed the per capita calorie supply, the average daily quantity of food energy available to a population, to increase practically everywhere.
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In Canada, for example, the
daily calorie supply increased 25 per cent between 1961 and 2018. Over
the same period, wheat yields increased by 329 per cent; corn yields went up 112 per cent; and potato production rose 168 per cent.
This is nothing less than a modern miracle of human ingenuity that has improved the well-being of people around the globe. Yet it’s also the target of Trudeau’s disastrous climate policies, which will affect Canada’s ability to feed its citizens, and the world.
An example of how important Canada is to global agriculture supply chains can be seen in France, where many grocery store shelves once filled with Dijon mustard, a kitchen staple in that country, are now bare — a result of
lower Canadian harvests due to fewer mustard crops having been planted last year, combined with severe summer droughts on the Prairies.
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No one is going to go hungry for lack of mustard, but it goes to show how easily food supplies can be disrupted — along with the myriad of issues farmers face, without having to worry about onerous new government regulations hampering their ability to grow crops.
As the
fifth-largest exporter of food, with exports totalling over $82 billion last year, the importance of Canada as the breadbasket of the world cannot be overstated. Nor can the agriculture and agri-food sector’s contribution to the Canadian economy: in 2021, it supported 2.1 million jobs and constituted 6.8 per cent of GDP.
Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to see what the Liberals, and their New Democratic partners, will do once the fertilizer cuts start affecting farmers’ bottom lines and driving the price of groceries even higher. The NDP
is already calling on the government to double the GST tax credit and increase the Canada Child Benefit to help lower-income Canadians put food on their tables.
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Meanwhile, Canadian agricultural producers received
over $5.7 billion in government subsidies last year. And then there’s the supply management system, which protects dairy, poultry and egg producers from domestic and foreign competition, ensuring their prices remain high and adding
hundreds of dollars to the average Canadian family’s annual grocery bill.
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Forcing farmers to reduce their fertilizer use will only increase the pressure on governments to offer more financial support, at taxpayers’ expense. This is the exact opposite of what’s needed at the moment.
Instead of being limited by government regulation, farmers should be encouraged to find ways to increase output in order to meet global demand, especially in the face of
looming shortages. The supply management system should also be phased out, in order to bring down the cost of Canadian staples and allow our dairy, poultry and egg farmers increased access to foreign markets.
Yet none of these solutions will be possible, so long as the Trudeau Liberals are singularly focused on the climate issue, which, while certainly a pressing longer-term international problem, should not come at the expense of human lives and well-being in the here and now.
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