Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food Recognizes Farmers Need Fertilizer

Guelph, ON – Eastern Canadian farmers from Atlantic Grains Council, Grain Farmers of Ontario, and Grain Farmers of Quebec commend members of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food for recognizing that farmers need fertilizer – without additional fees and with barriers to access removed – to produce more food to help feed the world.

The Parliamentary committee published recommendations in its report: Feeding the World: Strengthening Capacity to Respond to Global Food Insecurity. Several recommendations focused on fertilizer:

1. Returning tariffs collected by government on fertilizer imports
2. No mandatory fertilizer emission targets
3. Recognizing already achieved sustainable efforts on farms and sustainability programs being utilized such as 4Rs
4. Look at building fertilizer capacity

“We are pleased to see members of parliament recognize the need to prioritize safe, healthy food production in a year that will be hard for many people dealing with food insecurity, and that they understand the best way to grow abundant food is to ensure farmers can access and afford fertilizer,” said Brendan Byrne, Chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario. “Farmers want to protect the soil, water and air. Without a healthy environment, we will lose our family businesses. We also want to produce as much food as we can. We understand that balance and we strive for it daily. We need the government to reduce the conflicting objectives they have around food growth and production.”

Chairman Roy Culberson, Chair, Atlantic Grains Council, thanks all members of parliament, “as the topic of food security continues to be important for all of us, Maritime producers continue to grow safe commodities with the need of affordable inputs and the removal of barriers that allows us to support the ever-growing world population.”

“We certainly welcome the result of this exercise by the members of the Standing Committee on Agriculture aimed at strengthening Canada’s capacity to respond to food insecurity in the world. The agri-food system must not be taken for granted when geopolitical and climatic risks as well as societal expectations weigh so heavily on the shoulders of farmers today,” said Christian, Overbeek, President, Grain Farmers of Quebec.

Grain Farmers of Ontario released a report on the state of fertilizer and the issues with current voluntary reduction targets, tariffs and other barriers.