Agriculture and Conservation Groups Join Together for a Sustainable Future

Seeing more benefit to working collaboratively than apart, a diverse group of partners from the agriculture industry and conservation organizations, including Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), have created a vision toward a sustainable future for Canada’s agri-environmental landscape.

Imagine our country as a place where no new land is brought into agricultural production, environmental benefits are produced and farm production and profitability increase on an existing land base. This is the shared vision of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Crops’ (CRSC) agro-ecosystem working group, along with industry partners, for the sustainability of Canadian agriculture in the next 10 years.

Announced today at the Sustainability at Sunrise breakfast during the GrowCanada Conference, this vision has Canadian farmers meeting the growing demand for increased production while conserving and restoring ecosystem health such as soil, water and wildlife, and managing climate risk for future generations.

“The shared vision for the agri-environmental landscape represents clear progress towards sustainability,” says Karla Guyn, DUC’s CEO. “As a pragmatic, science-based organization that understands the importance of partnerships, Ducks Unlimited Canada supports the concept of increasing production efficiency on the existing land base, while not bringing further land into agricultural production. By making existing working land more productive for agriculture, we can keep more land in a natural state.”

Using science as the cornerstone and collaboration to achieve their goals, agriculture and conservation leaders from Canadian Federation of Agriculture, CropLife Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Fertilizer Canada, Grain Growers of Canada, Soil Conservation Council of Canada, and the World Wildlife Fund Canada were involved in the development of this vision for a sustainable future.

Brought to life at a workshop led by the Soil Conservation Council of Canada, the CRSC will use this vision to work toward 12 outcomes by 2026. The first one starts with Canada being recognized as an innovative leader in the area of sustainable agriculture.

“The CRSC is proud to have been part of developing this vision,” says Mark Brock, chair of the CRSC steering committee. “Sustainability is the common ground between environmental and agricultural interests and we thank all the founding organizations for their involvement; in particular, the leadership of Maria Trainer from CropLife Canada and Paul Thoroughgood from Ducks Unlimited Canada. We applaud them for discovering things we can agree on, rather than focusing on those we cannot and inspiring our entire sector. To realize this vision, actions must be taken, and the CRSC looks forward to being part of the work that lies ahead.”

Sustainable agricultural practices recognize that agricultural and environmental values are intrinsically connected. To ensure current stewardship efforts are maintained, and to avoid environmental degradation, increased production must be achieved on the current area of land under production.

To read the entire vision statement, visit sustainablecrops.ca/projects.

About Ducks Unlimited Canada:

Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is the leader in wetland conservation. A registered charity, DUC partners with government, industry, non-profit organizations and landowners to conserve wetlands that are critical to waterfowl, wildlife and the environment. Learn more at www.ducks.ca.

About Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Crops:

The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Crops (CRSC) was formed in 2013 to facilitate cross-commodity collaboration on sustainable agriculture issues and opportunities facing grains sector participants. Comprised of grower, industry, customer and consumer organizations, the CRSC is a national, industry-led forum engaging value chain stakeholders in assessing and responding to marketplace demands and showcasing Canada’s performance in the area of agriculture sustainability. Learn more at sustainablecrops.ca/.