When it comes to land use, some ways that land provides value are easy to measure and monetize, such as growing crops, raising livestock, or developing real estate. But other types of value, especially those that benefit broader society, like providing biodiversity, wildlife habitat preservation, carbon sequestration, and flood or fire risk mitigation, are much… Read More

Across much of Canada, there have traditionally been very few options for landowners to get paid for the overall value created by land conservation. Whether it’s grassland, farmland, or a different form of natural habitat, the broader societal benefits of that land often go unrecognized. Instead, land is converted, sold, and developed for uses that… Read More

Land is a fundamental and finite resource, yet it is easy to overlook its value in our everyday lives. Canada may have an abundance of land, but those acres are under immense pressure to serve multiple purposes—residential and industrial development, food production, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, solar and wind energy generation, recreation, and more. As we… Read More

Hot on the heels of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute’s conference on sustainability and agri-food, occasional Ag Policy Connection host, Shaun Haney, sat down with Tyler McCann, managing director of CAPI, Darlene McBain of FCC, and Sara Kate Smith of Clear Strategy, to unpack two days of policy panels, discussion, and insight. In this episode… Read More

A competitive advantage in the business world refers to factors that allow a company to produce goods or services for more value than their rivals. It’s when a business is better at making, selling, and ultimately, profiting from a product than their competitors. Canada’s agriculture and food sector, as a whole, has a strong story… Read More

Developing good ag policy that improves the long-term sustainability of Canadian agriculture — economic, environmental, and social — is a messy process that requires a mix of many things, including engaged stakeholders, good data to inform decisions, and enough people willing to take action and lead with long-term vision. This was clear as we discussed… Read More

Farmers and ranchers face many pressures to farm and raise animals in certain ways to meet sustainability-related goals of others, including food companies, lenders, and government. Clauses in crop contracts, carbon credits, government payments for rotational grazing or using nitrogen loss inhibitors, the federal fertilizer emissions reduction target, clean fuel standards, codes of practice, and… Read More

Methane emissions from cattle have received plenty of mainstream attention over the past decade, with calls to eat less beef often not accounting for the carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits of producing highly-nutritious food on grasslands. The panel in this episode of the Ag Policy Connection ruminates on how environmental policies can help or hinder… Read More