Highlighting the carbon tax’s effects

Nov 21, 2019

The Western Canadian Wheat Growers is encouraging farmers to share their energy bills

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

A Prairie farm organization is calling on all Canadian farmers to share how much the federal carbon tax is affecting their operating costs.

The Western Canadian Wheat Growers (WCWG) launched its No Farm Carbon Tax petition on Wednesday. Farmers are encouraged to add their names to the document. The organization will send the petition to the federal ministers of agriculture, environment and climate change.

An additional element of the petition asks farmers to disclose how much the carbon tax contributes to their monthly energy bills.

The organization will keep a running tally of the carbon tax portion of bills and share that information with federal ministers.

“In some instances, the carbon tax results in as much as 43 per cent of extra costs on top of what the monthly bill would’ve been without the tax,” Gunter Jochum, president of WCWG, told Farms.com. “That’s not sustainable.”

Maryam Monsef, Canada’s new minister of rural economic development, should also be monitoring the situation, Jochum said.

“Does (Canada) want farmers to be profitable and keep farming?” he said. “Farmers are the ones living and working in rural Canada, and the carbon tax is going to eat away at any profits farmers could’ve used to reinvest or spend in rural communities.”

Part of the frustration related to the carbon tax is a lack of fuel options.

The tax applies to propane and natural gas, which are the two primary resources used for grain drying.

Without any alternatives, farm costs will continue to increase.

“There’s no other option for us to switch to,” Jochum said. “The federal government is taxing us to get us to use a different source (of energy), but there isn’t one. We can’t dry grain with solar panels, so our expenses go up.”

The carbon tax could also affect ag exports.

The federal government has set a goal of exporting $75 billion of agricultural goods by 2025.

But if Canadian farmers are paying more to produce their crops, it could price Canada out of export opportunities, Jochum said.

“We can’t compete on global markets if we’re saddled with extra costs compared to places like the U.S. and Australia where they don’t have a carbon tax,” he said.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.