A new federal agriculture program could allow cattle producers to begin collecting carbon credits for carbon capture and storage.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced $16 million for Living Laboratories in Alberta, part of a $54-million national investment for agriculture research.
The Living Laboratories Initiative brings together farmers, scientists and other collaborators to co-develop and test innovative practices and technologies to address agri-environmental issues.
In Alberta, the government is partnering with the Alberta Beef Producers and the Food and Water Wellness Foundation, aiming to improve efficiency and sustainability of the beef, forage and cropping sectors. The funding includes $8.5 million for the Agricultural Climate Solutions Program, which will look at improving efforts for carbon sequestration, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating effects of climate change.
Melanie Wowk, chair of the Alberta Beef Producers, said carbon capture credits are available for grain producers but not beef producers, despite the maintaining of grazing land being a major source of carbon capture.
“I know that there’s models out there — there’s some in the United States that are being used — so it would be nice if we could get some of those models implemented and allow our producers some benefit of what we’re doing for the environment,” she said.
The beef industry has faced numerous challenges in recent years with shrinking revenues and rapidly increasing input costs, including carbon taxes. Wowk said the work the sector does to help the environment is often ignored.
Bibeau said she is working with Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbault on developing an offset system for producers.
Kim Cornish, director for the Food and Water Wellness Foundation, said one issue the project intends to address is the lack of proper models to calculate how much carbon is being captured by pasture land and ranching operations.
“This is a very important project for that reason, to help build out the data to actually make good soil carbon credit offsets a viable approach,” she said.
The five-year project will include about 50 different operations across the province and will develop strategies and best practices in the field.
The project will include farms, ranches, feedlots and Indigenous communities in the Peace, Edmonton/Central and Lethbridge regions.
This is a second instalment of funding for Living Laboratories initially announced in 2021 at $185 million as part of the Agriculture Climate Solutions, a 10-year program geared to develop and implement better environmental practices. Nine new labs were announced across Canada on Thursday, building off of already established study groups in P.E.I., Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario. B.C., Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador are also receiving funding for labs this time around.
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