Sustainability gets federal funds, uncertain sunflower situation, EU plays it COOL on durum

Lynda Nichol, executive director of Manitoba Association of Watersheds, discusses the ‘Living Lab’ project and the important role of watersheds in sustainable agriculture; sunflower is not only Ukraine’s national flower, it’s also one of that country’s largest exports. But with Ukraine currently repelling a Russian invasion, we hear from John Sandbakken of the National Sunflower Association if North American oilseed producers can fill the gap left by war; plus, Sean Pratt with the Western Producer reports on European Union efforts to expand its version of country-of-origin labeling to include Canadian durum wheat. Hosted by Ed White.

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Ed White: [00:00:06] Hello and welcome to Between the Rows. I’m Ed White, your host this week. Today we’ll hear about how a threat to Canadian agricultural exports is spreading.

Speaker2: [00:00:16] This is one of the very issues that they’re most concerned about was Italy’s. Country of origin labelling. They said it punishes Canadian exports runs counter to the free trade agreement.

Ed White: [00:00:34] We’ll hear about how sunflowers aren’t just a symbol of Ukraine, but also a major crop in the suffering nation and what that might mean for farmers here in Central North America.

Speaker2: [00:00:43] Since the 24th of February, which is obviously the first day of the invasion, we’ve added about $4 $4 a hundredweight to the price of sunflowers. So we’re looking at about right now, I’d say, about a 15 to 20% increase in new crop prices in just the last two weeks.

Ed White: [00:01:00] And we’ll hear about how the federal government is working with watershed organizations to increase farming sustainability and to reduce carbon emissions. But first, a word from our sponsor.

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Ed White: [00:01:50] There’s a lot of talk about farm sustainability and about reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farming. There’s been talk, talk, talk. But to achieve more action, the Federal Government has turned to two organisations with grass roots connections to prairie farmers. The feds are channeling over $60 million through the Canola Council of Canada and through watersheds associations to reduce on farm carbon emissions. Here I speak with Manitoba Association of Watersheds executive director Linda Nicol about the role of watershed associations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are playing. 

Ed White You folks and the government have done quite a lot together. You seem to have quite a fruitful relationship, like things like living labs and other things. What’s behind that and what are what are you able to do because of this, I guess, good working relationship you’ve got?

Linda Nicol: [00:02:40] I mean, I think what’s behind it is the strength of the watershed district program in Manitoba. Ultimately, anything that Maud does is in service to the watershed districts. And what we have that’s so unique within our district program here is localized governance that is really allowing them to respond to the needs of what’s required in their area. They work so closely with the agriculture community they’re invested in in making the the watershed more efficient, looking to ensure that there is a strong supply, both good quality and quantity of water, and doing projects that protect not only that, but also soil health. And so the individual strength of the Watershed Districts program is really what results in any efforts that Manitoba Association of Watersheds is able to do. We can’t say enough good about the work they’re doing on the land.

Ed White: [00:03:28] Yeah. And those living labs that are projects, I mean, they’re pretty neat. You know? You’ve been out to them. I’ve been out.

Linda Nicol: [00:03:32] Yes. They’re very innovative. 

Ed White: [00:03:35] You’re all over them. But but they do some pretty neat work in. That must be good to see there being public support for stuff which people talk about but often never gets off the drawing room.

Linda Nicol: [00:03:49] Well, absolutely. And I mean, any time that we can talk about the good work that’s being done on the land, you know, we’re happy to do so because what we’ve really seen through the Living Labs project, it’s a bit of a unique approach in that it combines research and real on farm activity in real time. And so in the three years it’s been running, we’re in our final year with it now we’re really starting to see the results and the fruition of that work. We’re able to acknowledge some of the changes that happened along the way, how we adapted in these challenging circumstances, not just with the drought last year, but the challenges around research related to COVID and how the distance was impacted and still were able to really deliver results from what work came out of those projects and certainly have the opportunity to have. Mr.. Duguid acknowledge. That is really exciting for us.

Ed White: [00:04:34] Well, thanks very much.

Linda Nicol: [00:04:35] Thank you. It’s great chatting with you.

Ed White: [00:04:36] I then asked Terry Duguid, the Winnipeg member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary, with a long interest in water protection efforts. But why the Federal Government is working so closely with watershed associations? 

Ed White I notice that the government is doing a lot with the Manitoba Association of Watersheds. Yes. And the Living Lives Project. Can you tell me about, I guess, why that has turned out to be such a fruitful relationship between the two of you? 

Terry Duguid: Well, it is. It’s a $40 million investment, which is significant. You’re absolutely right. And we in the prairies, I don’t need to tell you, water is life. Water is agriculture. We either have too much or too little. We have Lake Winnipeg, which is increasingly becoming polluted. And. And how do you solve that problem? You solve it at the watershed level by managing water. At the at the watershed level, we can reduce flooding. We can reduce the impacts of drought. But also, we we can better manage nutrients that are flowing into our waterways, eventually into Lake Winnipeg, causing algae blooms and wreaking havoc on on the 11th largest freshwater body on Earth. So that’s the the watershed is the fundamental unit at which we need to operate to get better environmental outcomes and better economic outcomes. 

Ed White And the Living Labs program or projects have been a pretty interesting way of of going about it. I’ve been to quite a few myself and they seem pretty organized and it’s a pretty neat research. That is something I think you’ve been involved with for for since their inception.  What’s your hope with those those programs and where I guess the knowledge they develop can lead to? 

Terry Duguid: [00:06:17Well, I think, you know, as they’re as their name implies, they are living labs. We are learning from them. We’re learning about best management practices that can be applied to watersheds across the country, but particularly here on the on the prairies, we have very unique conditions. You know, we get whipsawed between drought and floods and also but also our our soils store carbon. And we need those those sinks, we need those reservoirs of carbon to stay in the ground. And so we’re learning from folks like Living Labs just how to better manage our landscapes and water. Water escapes both for environmental reasons, but also for economic reasons. 

Ed White Well, that’s great. 

Terry Duguid Well, thanks. Good stuff. 

Ed White Sunflowers are a symbol of Ukraine. Today, many Canadians are embracing sunflower images to show support for the beleaguered nation. In my own church on Sunday in the sanctuary, we had sunflowers as part of that effort. But they are also a crucial export crop from Ukraine, the world’s biggest exporter. Manitoba and the Dakotas are also significant producers of sunflower crops. I spoke with John Sandbakken of the US National Sunflower Association. But how much growers here can fill in for sunflower seed that might be hard to get through the Black Sea. Does this create an opportunity for farmers here?

John Sandbakken: [00:08:13] Well, I think it definitely does, especially with what’s happening with 2022 new crop prices. Since the 24th of February, which is obviously the first day of the invasion. We’ve added about $4 a hundredweight to to the price of sunflower. So we’re looking at about right now, I’d say about a 15 to 20% increase in new crop prices in just the last two weeks.

Ed White: [00:08:38] So what are they like? What are you seeing from your crop prices 

John Sandbakken: [00:08:44] right now?Let me just I can tell you, this is obviously U.S. dollars. We’re right around. We’re actually we’re in a range of about 31 to $32 for oils for for us, per hundredweight. Yes, right, right, right, right.

Ed White: [00:08:59] So how does that compare to other times?

John Sandbakken: [00:09:03] Well, like last year, at the same time, we’re at 20 to $22. So obviously a pretty significant boost. Yeah. You know, when you look at it, you know, and actually was kind of last year, that was a very good price. But now this year, this is even a more phenomenal price. And the thing with the situation with Ukraine and this is where it’s really key is that given the volume they produce in the time of year that it is, the U.S. and Canada are in the prime position to fulfill some of this market demand. We’re the only two other major producers, you know, that can pick up some of the slack that’s in the northern hemisphere.

Ed White: [00:09:41] So, you know, I guess the reality of sunflowers is, I mean, people aren’t growing at fence posts or fence line to fence line. And it’s not like corn and soybeans or wheat that’s already gobbled up tens of millions of acres. It wouldn’t be hard to really push it a bit, would it?

John Sandbakken: [00:09:58] No. You know, the thing is, you know what? You know, with sunflowers, we’re not a major crop. But, you know, given the rotation that you have in Manitoba and here in the Dakotas, it fits in really well to rotation. And because we grow a diversity of crops, it’s easy to switch crops in and out into your rotation. Whereas example, if you were in like one of the ICE states like Illinois or Indiana or Iowa, they’re basically soybeans and corn, and that’s the only two crops that grow well here. We’re very diversified, you know, in the northern region here.

Ed White: [00:10:31] And how does the seed supply look? Is there is there enough if people want to add a few acres?

John Sandbakken: [00:10:38] Definitely. Definitely. I was just in contact with the seed companies last week and there’s still plenty of seed available. So we were anticipating an increase in acres already given where prices were at earlier this year. But, you know, with this, I’m certain that the industry would like to see every single seed planted. That would be our goal. If we had every bag in the ground this year that’s available, that would be the best case scenario..

Ed White: [00:11:04] Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, I guess what’s funny is up here on this side of the board, I guess you had drought down there for a lot of North Dakota, too, didn’t you? But it was really profound up here. And I haven’t really checked.

Into yet how the sunflower supply is up here. A lot of the seed supplies are sort of short for a lot of our crops up here. Because of Because of that drought. But I don’t know about sunflowers, so I guess that’s something to check around because I guess it can’t really just go across the border that easily, can it?

John Sandbakken: [00:11:33] Actually, yes. Okay. Most most of the seed that that is planted in Canada is from California.

Ed White: [00:11:38] Really. Okay. So it’s not a that’s not an issue.

John Sandbakken: [00:11:42] No. See, Sunflower is hybrid seed and it’s produced, you know, in a region that it can’t be contaminated or not contaminated, but cross-pollinate with other crops. It has to be an isolated area. And so the bulk of all seed planting seed that’s produced in the world is in California.

Ed White: [00:12:01] Right. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah.

John Sandbakken: [00:12:03] Yeah, that’s it has to be an isolated place. And so that’s why it’s a great scenario there. So. So, no, as long as there’s plenty of seed available that will work in, you know, the climate in Canada that there’s definitely seed available. So. Well, okay. Yeah.

Ed White: [00:12:18] And these days, you know, it’s, it’s like totally dominated by oil seed sunflowers, right? You know. Yeah. Yeah. I think up here too, right. Because I remember when I started working at. This paper like decades ago. It was a mostly complex business, but that’s I think it’s totally changed in recent years. So it’s not so different covering the two, but.

John Sandbakken: [00:12:44] And the thing is, you’re close to the border. So it’s not that far to haul to the crush plants or to yeah. To bird food facilities. So we’re in a good like I said, Manitoba and North Dakota is in a rural was in a very good position right now.

Ed White: [00:13:05] That was John Sandbakken of the US National Sunflower Association. Well, we need to talk once more about country of origin labelling. And now I welcome Sean Pratt, of the Western Producer, to the program. So hello, Sean, and welcome to Between the Rows.

Sean Pratt: [00:13:29] Yeah, thanks Ed for inviting me here.

Ed White: [00:13:31] So traditionally, when I’ve been thinking of country of origin labeling, I think of the United States and I think of what seems to us on this side of the border most of the time as dastardly attempts to try to find a way to sort of block Canadian pork or beef. But then Italy got into the act a few years ago with little attempts. It seemed, again to our jaded eyes over here because we’re affected by it with Durum Imports to Italy. But now I understand from your story in our paper that in fact we’re going to have to look much wider at the European Union when it comes to country of origin labeling these days.

Sean Pratt: [00:14:13] That’s right. They’re contemplating legislation or a change to a regulation, I think they call it that would they’ve already got country of origin labelling in place, mandatory country of origin labelling on certain products. You know, there’s fruit and vegetables, beef and pork and eggs and, you know, variety of other products. But they want to expand that list of products to include milk, tomatoes, potatoes and certain other products. But the one that of real concern to Canadian farmers is they want to expand it to include Durum in on pasta on labels. So they would say where the Durum came from for this pasta package. So that’s yeah, that’s definitely a concern for Canadian farmers.

Ed White: [00:15:21] And how is this coming up? Like why? Why? My understanding was a couple of years ago, Italy was doing it and various other European players were saying, oh, don’t worry, we’ll we’ll talk to the Italians about about sort of unrolling some of this. And we just signed a free trade deal, apparently, with the. Well, we did. And we were supposed to have better trade with the European Union. And now it looks like rather than it going to less country of origin labelling, it looks like it’s going to more.

Sean Pratt: [00:15:59] Yeah, it’s all part of this European Commission’s farm to fork strategy that was announced back, I think it was May 20th, 2020. They adopted this strategy, which is part of the European Green Deal. And in that strategy, they’re stressing things like, you know, a shift to more sustainability and environmentally friendly farming. And also they want transparency. And so this falls under that transparency category. I know I read a impact assessment on on this proposal. And the proposal is broader than just it’s not just focused on country of origin labeling. It’s a whole broader labeling initiative that that is going to include, you know, certain front of pack nutrition labeling and that type of stuff. But I guess one of the things they said in this impact assessment is that there’s there’s countries such as Italy that that are adopting their own country of origin labeling laws. And they they’re worried that there isn’t sort of uniform legislation, so that everybody in the European Union has the same access to information about the products they’re buying. And they feel that this this sort of country by country approach is getting away from the whole idea of a single market in Europe. So they’re they’re proposing this sort of broader European Union wide legislation. And, you know, it all hearkens back to this farm to fork strategy that a lot of farmers around the world are nervous about.

Ed White: [00:18:01] And I know with the United States country of origin labeling, the various iterations of that we’ve dealt with, the concern there is that it it’s essentially operates as like a non-tariff trade barrier in that it makes it more difficult for processors to take pigs and for for farmers to raise pigs that might have been born in Canada, because you have to be kept segregated, processed separately, and then the products have to be labeled separately. So it adds a lot of headaches, which then would just dissuade someone from wanting to to import those products. Is that sort of the same concern that comes up with these these European moves towards country of origin labeling?

Sean Pratt: [00:18:47] That is exactly the same concern. I spoke to Jim Wickett, who’s director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers here in Canada, and he said this is just simply an expansion of non-tariff trade barriers. And, you know, and it does have an impact in Italy. Italy was Canada’s top Durum buyer. And in 2017, when they adopted that country of origin, labelling the Canadian Durum sales to Italy plummeted. They went from a little over a million tonnes to 561,000 tonnes, so they slashed in half. And part of the reason is because they’re Italian farmers. Farm groups sort of had this smear campaign against Canadian Durum saying, you know, it wasn’t good for you, it’s full of glyphosate and yada, yada. So the consumers hear this and then see the Durum from Durum. Durum. And this pasta came from Canada. It has an impact at the grocery store. So, yeah. You know, farmers here are quite concerned about this becoming a broader, you know, broader regulation. Italy isn’t the only big customer of Canadian Durum in the European Union. It as I said, it used to be our top customer and now it’s our second biggest market. But there’s also Belgium, which is Canada’s fifth largest customer, and some others as well. That kind of rank little lower down the list.

Ed White: [00:20:36] Well, I’m sure it’s something you’ll be following. And I’m sure it’s something we’ll all have to be watching this. This as it as it unfolds.

Sean Pratt: [00:20:45] Yeah, well, it’s definitely something to keep an eye on. I know that the Canadian Agrifood Trade Alliance last year issued a statement saying that they weren’t really pleased with how this Canadian European Union free trade agreement was unfolding. And this is one of the very issues that they’re most concerned about was Italy’s. Country of origin labelling. They they said it punishes Canadian exports runs counter to the free trade agreement and they they say it’s even against the EU law, yet nothing’s being done to resolve it. So they want some resolution to this type of thing. And now here, here it is sort of becoming a broader issue.

Ed White: [00:21:39] Well, thanks for explaining this to us today, Sean, and thanks for coming on the program.

Sean Pratt: [00:21:44] Hey, no worries. Thanks Ed

Ed White: [00:21:45] Sean Pratt is a reporter with the Western Producer newspaper in Saskatoon. That’s all for this week. Please join us again next week for another edition of Between the Rows. I’m Ed White and I wish you all the best as spring quickly approaches.

Commercial: [00:22:22] We knew we were doing something right when a competition started swearing every time they talked about us. Just the other day, I heard someone saying, Have you seen this seed master Ultra Pro II think a third party Pammy testing that confirms it’s individual row metering delivers uniform seed placement, near zero seed mortality and no impact on germination results. We take it as a huge compliment. Start raising your ROI at seedmaster.ca.

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