YORKTON - There always seems to be divisive issues in agriculture – the Canadian Wheat Board for years – and today the idea of cutting greenhouse emissions would lead the list.
Certainly, the federal government believes farmers and Canada’s agriculture industry should cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Of course across much of the Prairies at least anything coming out of Ottawa is seen as bad theses days – a view reinforced in Saskatchewan by a Premier that works hard to deflect the reasons for all provincial woes to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
But, dig past the rhetoric of two levels of government at near constant loggerheads is the vision of cutting greenhouse gases a good one?
The obvious answer is yes – but that yes does come with a massive caveat.
While there are naysayers – there are flat earthers too – the science makes it rather clear we are seeing climate change and that is particularly concerning for the farm sector which is by nature weather reliant.
Now the water muddies just a little in terms of why climate is changing – is it a long term natural pattern of play, or is it the impact of humans finally changing things to an extreme level?
It of course might be a combination too, a natural pattern accelerated and made more dramatic because of our long term impact on the earth.
Ultimately, it’s highly unlikely we are blameless, so that means we should be changing what we do to try to reverse a trend that if it continues long term is not a good one for humanity or the planet.
That agriculture should be part of it is logical.
But, again the question is whether it makes sense to impact farmers in Canada when much of the world – the United States, China, Eastern Europe seem blissfully unaware of the threat of climate change with almost zero indication they will do anything to change things.
Until the big players get their heads out of the sand and into the game, whatever we might achieve in Canada simply won’t tip the scales in a positive way.
Then again somebody has to lead the way too.
