With the Federal Election less than two weeks away, the Foothills Green Party Candidate says she believes wholeheartedly in the agriculture sector and wants to see farmers supported.
Bridget Lacey lives on the family farm southwest of Turner Valley where they raise cattle and once grew vegetables, she says her parents were some of the first organic greenhouse growers in Alberta.
Lacey says the Green Party would like to see farmers move away from using pesticides, herbicides and the industrial use of high nitrogen fertilizers.
"I believe it was a United Nations report that said a return to small farming and small regenerative and organic farming practices would enable us to feed to the world population and I think that is something that needs to be taken into account."
Lacey says there's been a decrease in family farms with the move to the industrialization of agriculture, and they want to attract more people back to the industry.
She says farmers and other producers will be one of the hardest hit by climate change.
She says the best thing for agriculture is to take bold steps on the Party's Climate Action Plan and priorities to reduce emissions, adding farmers are one of the most susceptible to changing weather patterns.
"We really can't afford to go with a Conservative climate plan. We need something much more progressive, and I hope that the farmers will see that and how important it is for the future."
Canada's labour shortage in the ag sector has been an issue highlighted by some farm groups during the campaign this election season.
Lacey says the Green's want to see an increase in immigration to fill the gap, also possibly attracting people who work in agriculture from other place in the world.
"This is one of the issues the Green Party has a real focus on in contrast to say, the People's Party [of Canada], where they want to decrease immigration."
However, she says they'd like to scrap the Temporary Foreign Workers Program in favour of a path to permanent residency for workers.
"Right now foreign workers do not qualify for a path to permanent residence in Canada, and we'd like to see that re-evaluated." she said.
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