Editor’s note: The following is a letter March 9 from farm organizations to federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister to Heath MacDonald.
We are farm organizations which together represent Canadian farmers from coast to coast across conventional and organic production of crops and livestock. We are united in our opposition to the closure of research facilities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the Organic and Regenerative Research Program, and elimination of positions of the researchers, technicians, and support staff who carry out research and operate the facilities.
The deputy minister has confirmed there were no consultations with farm organizations prior to the announced cuts. Any cost-benefit analysis that decision-makers may have done was without the benefit of understanding the extent of the research, its value to farmers, the economic return of public research investments, the synergistic benefit of collaboration among research stations, the significance of the geographic footprint of the AAFC research stations and farms, and the irreplaceable value of specific programs and research sites’ land base.
It has been suggested that universities and/or the private sector will be able to compensate for the federal government’s retreat from public agriculture research, however this is not realistic.
Universities carry out important, valuable research, but cannot replace AAFC’s research capacity. They are cash-strapped, and grant funding is short term, precarious, and often tied to commercial partners. They do not have access to the secure, dedicated land base or provide the stability required for long-term studies and multi-site plant breeding trials or agronomic studies. University research is driven by academic interests and timelines, and may not always align with farmers’ needs.
Private sector agricultural research is understandably shaped by commercial priorities and cannot address the range of research topics needed by farmers or for Canada’s long-term food and agriculture sector’s success. Private plant breeding focuses on crops where a high return can be gained, leading to higher seed costs for farmers. Smaller acreage, horticultural, open-pollinated, and perennial forage crops cannot provide investment returns to warrant private commercial research.
Successful university and private research has advanced through collaboration with AAFC research, so eliminating key positions and facilities will also reduce their capacity and weaken the entire research system.
The Organic and Regenerative Agriculture program at Swift Current is both uniquely valuable and vulnerable. It supports farmer-led alternative plant breeding and addresses urgent problems of climate adaptation, reduced-input production, disease issues, and others faced by all farmers, organic and conventional alike, but due to its focus on low-input production systems, and the need for long-term organically managed test sites, it is less likely to be co-funded by private researchers and is more difficult to relocate.
Public research with long term and reliable funding, and that is national in scope, is best placed to address long-term, national and complex problems, like that of climate change. These cuts threaten the science, research and innovation needs of our sector as it currently prepares for one of the biggest challenges it has ever faced.
The research centres and farms slated for closure support sustainable livestock production and land management on the Prairies, in Eastern Canada and the Maritimes; agronomic research across climatic zones and soil types; and disease and pest management research needed to address serious and emerging production problems across the country. Research clusters funded as strategic investments under the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership will also be compromised by the loss of key AAFC staff and facilities.
The AAFC research centres form a sophisticated, integrated national network of sites that provide a base for public research done by AAFC with teams of top scientists, highly skilled technicians and support staff, and in collaboration with academic, non-profit and for-profit private research organizations. Cutting them weakens the entire network, compromising Canada’s remaining ag research capacity.
In addition to harming research capacity, these cuts will also have a negative impact on government revenues. Cuts will reduce government income from royalties on new AAFC seed varieties, and from tax revenues flowing from the multi-billion dollar agriculture sector that flows from production and yield improvements made possible by AAFC’s work.
The Seed Increase Unit at Indian Head, SK is an essential component of the pedigreed seed system, ensuring farmers have the seed needed to sow crops sold for billions of dollars annually.
The cuts impacts on the Canadian Grain Commission’s work will weaken its ability to safeguard the quality of grain for export markets that allows Canadian grain to command premium prices.
Agriculture economist Dr. Richard Gray’s research shows that a $370 million in taxpayer investment in wheat breeding results in Canadian benefits reaching $11.8 billion.
It is increasingly clear to us that the decision to eliminate this critical public research infrastructure was made without considering its true value to farmers, the Canadian public and the future of our food and agriculture system.
We are calling for an immediate pause on closures and employee terminations for a minimum of 24 months so the government can take time to re-evaluate closures and cuts in areas that are crucial, protect irreplaceable components of the research system, or offer enhancements to Canada’s agriculture landscape that may have been overlooked; full transparency regarding the decision-making process leading up to the cuts.
The letter was signed by:
Alberta Federation of Agriculture
Alberta-British Columbia Seed Growers
Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network (ACORN)
British Columbia Fruit Growers Association
BC Organic
Canada Organic Trade Association
Canadian Organic Growers
Canadian Seed Growers Association
CCentre d’expertise et de transfert en agriculture biologique et de proximité
Coop Agrobio du Québec
Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario
Farmers for Climate Solutions
Manitoba Forage Seed Association Inc.
Manitoba Organics
Manitoba Seed Growers Association
National Farmers Union
Ontario Organic
Saskatchewan Seed Growers’ Association
SaskOrganics Association Inc.
SeedChange