Policies, programs, and regulations to support the transition to sustainable agriculture in Canada

MacRae, Rod; Hill, Stuart B.; Henning, John C.; Bentley, Alison

doi:10.1017/s0889189300003325

Cited by 55 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…As already indicated there is a foundation of knowledge, and working examples, that can be drawn on in further development and refinement of this picture. This further development will require a process of change and transition towards what has been termed 'redesign' by Hill (1985Hill ( , 1998 and MacRae et al (1990). The need for redesign of New Zealand agriculture towards lower energy input systems was identified by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (2004).…”

Section: Adaptation Pathways and Response Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation in agriculture: lessons for resilience from eastern regions of New Zealand

Kenny¹

2011

Climatic Change

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Assessments of adaptation in agriculture have evolved considerably from early, top-down, impact assessments. These early assessments, internationally and in New Zealand, provided a limited view of 'smart farmer' adaptation. While impact assessment provides some useful insights, experience with vulnerability and adaptation assessment provides a more appropriate foundation for understanding and characterising practical smart farmer adaptation. Findings are presented from 8 years of engagement with farmers in eastern regions of New Zealand. A comprehensive farm resilience picture has emerged from this work. This picture reflects a strong belief from real-world smart farmers that there is sufficient knowledge and experience to adapt to climate change. Proactive farmers are already reading multiple signals, including changes in climate, and are responding. The farm resilience picture provides a foundation for exploring alternative adaptation options and pathways for agriculture. These are presented and discussed in response to two proposed climate change scenarios, a high carbon world scenario and a rapidly decarbonising world scenario. Knowledge intensive, low input systems are consistent with the resilience picture drawn from farmers. Such systems are also consistent with a rapidly decarbonising world scenario and, it is argued, are likely to become increasingly attractive under a high carbon world scenario. A smart farming approach, focused on resilience, provides the basis for development of a response capacity, with potentially significant co-benefits in terms of adaptation and mitigation to climate change. Wider issues and needs to support the further development of farm resilience, and more widely landscape or regional resilience, are identified and discussed. It is apparent from this work that ongoing engagement with smart farmers, focused on resilience, can contribute significantly to development of a coordinated 'bottom up' and 'top down' response capacity. Addressing the psychology of change is a fundamental need to ensure wider engagement.

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Section: Adaptation Pathways and Response Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation in agriculture: lessons for resilience from eastern regions of New Zealand

Kenny¹

2011

Climatic Change

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“…Direct payments to farmers have decreased significantly since the early 1990s. Many of these reductions are appropriate since the payments acted as disincentives to the transition to more sustainable practices (MacRae et al 1990a). However, on average, net farm income for farmers continues to worsen, while vulnerability to more erratic market and climatic conditions is increasing, which is putting more pressure on the safety-net system.…”

Section: Adopting Organic Farming Can Decrease the Need For Governmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic and social impacts of organic production systems

MacRae¹,

Frick²,

Martin³

2007

Can. J. Plant Sci.

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Given relatively low adoption levels to date, the potential benefits of organic farming systems are not yet very visible. However, there is growing evidence in the literature that adoption of such systems produces multiple environmental, social, and financial benefits that can solve pressing agricultural problems in Canada. Compared with their duration as conventional operations, most organic farms in North America perform better under organic management. This outcome is usually a product of lower input costs, more diversified production and marketing channels, resilience in the face of variable market conditions, higher premiums, and a better capacity to adapt to weather extremes. However, the performance of farming systems including some horticultural and animal production systems, for which our ecological understanding is limited, is still frequently inferior. The data on social impacts are less conclusive, but there is some evidence that when a community has many sustainable (including organic) producers , there are positive shifts in community economic development and social interaction. The reasons appear to be related to the need to hire more labour, the increased demand for local goods and services, and a greater commitment to participation in civic in stitutions. Key words: Organic agriculture, economic performance, social benefits

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“…The early scientific pioneers of sustainable agriculture (e.g., FH King, Sir Albert Howard), had a more profoundly ecological interpretation of sustainability [78][79][80] than is reflected in Canadian government definitions (see discussion above). Numerous sustainability schools of thought have emerged over the years, producing production systems consistent with the early pioneers and more grounded in an understanding of ecology [81]. Much of the scientific literature of today employs an agroecological paradigm [35,36,82,83] that is at odds with the underlying paradigms of the Canadian government approach.…”

Section: Sustainable Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowering the Citizen-Consumer: Re-Regulating Consumer Information to Support the Transition to Sustainable and Health Promoting Food Systems in Canada

et al. 2012

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Both health and sustainability are stated public policy objectives in Canada, but food information rules and practices may not be optimal to support their achievement. In the absence of a stated consensus on the purposes of public information about food, the information provided is frequently determined by the marketers of product. No institution or agency has responsibility for determining the overall coherence of consumer food messages relative to these broader social goals of health and sustainability. Individual firms provide information that shows their products to best advantage, which may contradict what is provided about the product by another firm or government agency. Individual consumers do not have the resources to determine easily the completeness of any firm's messages, particularly in light of the size of food industry advertising budgets. Government rules confound this problem because there is also little coherence between the parts of government that have responsibility for point of purchase, advertising rules, and labelling. The healthy eating messages of health departments are often competing with contradictory messages permitted by the regulatory framework of other arms of government. Investments in programs that successfully promote environmental stewardship in agriculture are undercut in the market because consumers cannot support OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2011, 4 2147 those efforts with their dollars. This problem exists despite the emergence of "citizen-consumers" who have a broader approach to food purchasing than individual maximization. Only recently have some health professionals and sustainable agriculture proponents turned their attention to these factors and designed interventions that take them into account. In this paper, which builds upon earlier work by MacRae [1], we outline key short, medium and long term initiatives to facilitate the citizen-consumer phenomenon and better support consumers in their efforts to promote health and sustainability in the Canadian food system.

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Policies, programs, and regulations to support the transition to sustainable agriculture in Canada

Cited by 55 publications

References 37 publications

Adaptation in agriculture: lessons for resilience from eastern regions of New Zealand

Adaptation in agriculture: lessons for resilience from eastern regions of New Zealand

Economic and social impacts of organic production systems

Empowering the Citizen-Consumer: Re-Regulating Consumer Information to Support the Transition to Sustainable and Health Promoting Food Systems in Canada

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