Grain Farmers of Ontario calls on Government to Exempt Food Production from the Carbon Tax

Apr 03, 2024

Guelph, ON – Grain Farmers of Ontario, the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers, today calls on the federal Liberal government to institute a grain drying exemption to the carbon tax ahead of the April 1, 2024 increase.

The price of the carbon tax will be set at $80 a tonne as of April 1 of this year, up from $65 last year and $50 the year before that.

Despite the fact that farmers have no viable alternatives to dry grain and must use current technology to ensure that wet grain is dried, the federal government continues to burden farmers with this increasing tax.

“It is simple: don’t tax food production. Farmers are rightfully concerned that they are being penalized for drying their grain when they have no alternatives, and Canadians are rightly confused about why the government is adding costs to food production when there are lineups at food banks across the country,” said Jeff Harrison, Chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario.

Harvested grain is dried to make sure it is safe to eat. This simple fact was well understood by both Members of Parliament and the Senate. The provincial government has also come out in support of farmers, with Premier Doug Ford issuing a public statement on the carbon tax and Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs Lisa Thompson sending a letter to the federal government signed by Ontario commodity organizations.

“We want to thank Premier Ford and Minister Thompson for their continued support, and we call on the Liberal government to put in an exemption for drying grain as soon as the House of Commons returns from the Easter break,” said Harrison.

Source : GFO

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”