Long before sustainability became a policy buzzword, farmers worked to protect soil from wind erosion, manage moisture conditions and conserve fuel and other inputs. What’s changed in recent years is the level of public and industry awareness of environmental issues. This has generated a host of funding initiatives directed at conservation, climate and environmental programming in agriculture. Over time, federal and provincial governments have rolled out an ever-growing suite of programs aimed at soil health, biodiversity, water conservation and greenhouse gas reduction.

A formative experience, Tyler McCann spent almost a decade in the federal government, primarily as an advisor to then Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Minister Gerry Ritz. McCann and his wife Gillian MacDougall grew up on cattle and dairy farms respectively, and upon McCann’s exit from government in 2017, they established a herd of 60 purebred Simmental cattle on 200 acres in western Quebec.

Conversation about ESG continues to increase in volume as these three letters bleed into many facets of life. An acronym for “environmental, social and governance,” the idiom was coined in a 2004 report by the United Nations titled Who Cares Wins. This slightly fluid term delineates the notion that people in any given business sector need to show their work when it comes to taking care of the planet, treating people well and operating in a sustainable, that is, socially acceptable, fashion.

The annual growth rate of Canadian agricultural productivity stood at or near two per cent from 1991 to 2010, according to a Farm Credit Canada (FCC) report released in December 2023. Since 2011, productivity growth has slowed and stands at just one per cent where it is projected to remain for the rest of this decade.

The two-year anniversary of COVID-19 is upon us and many aspects of life are still out of sorts. One step forward often results in one, or two, steps backwards, depending on what aspect of life is being evaluated. Farming, though, has always been a touch more socially distanced and isolated than the rest of society, but it’s not immune from the pandemic and its many ripple effects, primarily through the interruption of supply chain logistics.