Take a Bite Out of Climate Change: The potential of organic farming

This past Saturday Canadian Organic Growers Perth-Waterloo-Wellington (COG PWW) hit the road school-bus style, but it wasn’t just any school bus. Thanks to Everpure Biodiesel Coop and Sharp Bus Lines, our bus was running on 20% biodiesel produced from waste fryer oil. This effort was to demonstrate that when it comes to talking the talk, COG also walks the walk. Reducing our fossil fuel consumption was key to running our “Take a Bite Out of Climate Change” bus tour of local organic farms – organic farmers do their part, we best do ours – especially during national Organic Week.

The day was all about exploring the climate-change mitigating potential of organic agriculture and discovering the linkages between food, farming and climate change. Participants toured Ignatius Farm, Everdale Organic Farm and Mapleton’s Organic Dairy and heard from local organic farmers about the realities of adapting to unpredictable weather patterns and how diverse farm systems and organic farming practices allow them to do that.

Participants of the "Take a Bite Out of Climate Change" bus tour hear from Martin de Groot, farmer at Mapleton's Organic Dairy

While adaptation is a necessity, there is much potential for mitigation with organic farming. To facilitate discussion on this topic, we invited Ralph Martin to join us on our tour. Former founding director of the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada, he is now inaugural Loblaw Chair in Sustainable Food Production at the University of Guelph. While we travelled from farm to farm, Ralph expanded on what the farmers had said to highlight all the potential of reduced greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration that a local organic food system can achieve.

The most significant contribution organic agriculture makes to climate change mitigation? The prohibition of nitrogen fertilizer. Ralph explained that natural gas – and a lot of it – is used to produce nitrogen fertilizer. A temperature of 1000°C and a pressure of 1000 atmospheres is required to produce this synthetic input, which is then transported (ie, more fossil fuels) to several points of distribution before it finally arrives at the farm. This energy-intensive product accounts for one-third of total energy use in agriculture, so you can see how eliminating it drastically reduces fossil-fuel use, which ultimately helps to mitigate climate change. In addition, excess application of nitrogen fertilizer results in nitrous oxide emissions, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times worse than carbon dioxide. I’m sorry, I think that requires repeating – 300 times worse than carbon dioxide! With little emphasize on soil health in conventional agriculture, excess fertilizer application is often thought necessary.

In contrast, organic farming practices rely on free and natural sources of nitrogen. Legumes (peas, beans, clovers, alfalfa) are planted as “green manures,” a crop that is grown for benefits other than a crop (in this case, soil fertility). These plants have a special relationship with a particular bacteria called Rhizobia. They provide this bacteria with a bit of carbohydrates, which the Rhizobia in turn use to convert nitrogen from the air into a usable form for the plant. In this way, an on-farm fertility management system that has far greater independence from fossil fuels (tractors still required to work the land) is created.

There are many other points to convey from our tour and discussion of organic agriculture and climate change, which we’ll be discussing in further posts – stay tuned!

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Organic Week less than 3 weeks away!

The week of October 15^th-22^nd, 2011 is officially Organic Week in Canada, an initiative led by Canadian Organic Growers and the Canada Organic Trade Association. The annual event was created last year to celebrate the national Organic Products Regulations and the Canada Organic logo that became legal on June 30, 2009. The focus is still on celebration of a growing organic sector and promotion of the benefits of organic food and farming. You can learn more about what is going on nationally at the official Organic Week website.

Regionally, Canadian Organic Growers Perth-Waterloo-Wellington (COG PWW) and partners have coordinated a number of events to educate and engage the community with our local organic food system.

To kick off the week, Waterloo-based retailer Healthy Foods & More will be bringing the farm to the city with their “Meet the Producers” day that will provide opportunities for making connections between farmers (and even their cows) and consumers. Two organic farms – Laepple Organic Farm and Organic Oasis – will be offering such connections right on the farm with free farm tours offered as part of the week’s festivities.

COG PWW has also organized a bus tour of local organic farms themed around the climate-change-mitigating potential of local organic food and farming. The “Take a Bite Out of Climate Change” tour will visit three organic farms in Wellington County via Everpure-Biodiesel-Coop-powered bus with lots of discussion along the way led by Ralph Martin, Loblaw Chair in Sustainable Food Production at the University of Guelph.

Food documentaries, Dirt and Fresh, will be shown at various locations every weekday evening. Each screening will allow for and encourage time for discussion following the film.

For a full schedule of local events for Organic Week, check out www.cogwaterloo.ca/events.php.

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Meat, dairy and eggs – sustainable? You betcha!

In the midst of the 6th Annual Guelph Wellington Local Food Fest all sorts came together under the workshop tent: vegans, vegetarians, vegetarian-turned-omnivores, life-long omnivores, and even some “flexitarians” (i.e., more discriminating meat eaters who only eat what they consider “happy” meat). Despite differing diet choices, the group remained civil and engaged through a discussion led by Val Steinmann of Heartwood Farm on how meat, dairy and eggs can be part of – and in fact are integral to – a sustainable diet.

There are many reasons why some opt out of consuming these animal products. Val’s main point was that these reasons are completely legitimate in a factory-farm situation, but that there needs to be a more nuanced dialogue about how environmental and animal welfare considerations play out on small, mixed, organically-managed farms that pasture their animals.

In contrast to acres and acres of GM corn that are heavily fertilized and sprayed with chemicals for animal feed in the industrial model of raising livestock, organic pasture-raised animals are part of a perennial system that is naturally fertilized (they do the work!) and doesn’t require tillage. These two facts make the organic pasture system incredibly less fossil-fuel intensive. In addition, because it is a perennial system (i.e., not an annual system that has to be replanted each season), pasture roots create a deep, developed system that is second only to forests in its capability of sequestering carbon. Not too bad at all when you factor in issues like peak oil and climate change.

While there is not much to argue against someone’s personal ethics related to eating other animals, there is at least allowance for a happier life in the pasturing model. Pasturing and organic practices value animals’ lives and attempt to provide them with lives as close to what their breeds have evolved to live as possible. Pastures may include fences, but they are a far cry from small cages and pens!

Food issues are never straightforward, and we’ve really just skimmed the surface here. There is certainly more to be said, so we hope you will join in the discussion to bring forward other perspectives.

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