Grainswest - Spring 2024

Spring 2024 grainswest.com 39 T he number of farms entering the organic industry is on the rise. “Three per cent of all farms in Canada are certified organic now,” said Tia Loftsgard, executive director of the Canadian Organic Trade Association (COTA). She recalled that about a decade ago, approximately just 800 certified organic farms existed across Canada. The total is now 6,069 with 571 of these in Alberta. The country’s 3.8 million acres of organic production include 1.14 million acres of field crops. “Do I think it will continue expanding? Yes, definitely,” said Loftsgard. A challenge to the growth of organic production, particularly for conventional farmers who wish to take it up, is its three-year transition period during which no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers can be applied to the field. “When you start your organic journey, you’re committing to these new production practices,” said Loftsgard. Because certified organic farmers are audited on a yearly basis for their adherence to Canadian Organic Regime (COR) standards, the paperwork is no picnic either. Everything you put in your soil must be documented. This is necessary to verify organic practices are adhered to but may also assist a farmer in fine-tuning their practices. “You need to be able to prove it to a certifier, and it makes you really pay attention to the practices you’re adopting,” said Loftsgard. The reduced cost of chemical inputs is a key upside, but organic operations also typically require more labour than conventional farms. “It’s more of a technique where you need to be paying attention and you can’t just do everything monocropping like you could do in conventional and just spray it all to keep the weeds down,” she said. Strategies such as the Organic Action Plan, now being developed by COTA, the Canadian Organic Growers and the Organic Federation of Canada, can address the challenges organic farmers face and propel the industry to further growth. “Every great agricultural nation has an organic policy framework and an organic action plan,” said Loftsgard. “Canada is the only one that does not.” The purpose of the plan is to develop a framework for the industry’s production and market needs and the research required to further its success, all in conjunction with governmental policy demands. These demands include the federal goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer by 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030 and the COP15 biodiversity strategy, which requires countries around the globe to reduce environmental risks posed by pesticides, though not necessarily the amount, by 50 per cent by 2030. “The time is now, because the government has made these commitments and they need a concrete strategy on how to get there,” said Loftsgard. She noted Canada has the fifth-largest organic market in the world, and the right strategy could bump it higher. A STRONG MARKETPLACE Traceability is a characteristic that sets Canada apart on the global food market. “If you want to buy a bag of organic oatmeal in Canada, you could trace back to a set number of farms that product came from,” said Michael Strebchuk, president of the Alberta Organic Producers Association (AOPA) and a third-generation farmer in the High Prairie area. In addition to a custom cattle-feeding operation, he grows cereals and forages on approximately 1,200 certified organic acres. “That traceability does not exist in some of the other countries around the world that are certified organic.” This is largely due to the certification process required of Canadian organic farmers through the COR. “We have to meet those standards, but how we get there [varies],” said Strebchuk. Farmers may choose to certify through associations such as AOPA or the TransCanada Organic Certification Services, a not-for-profit group operated by its farmer members. Until 2009, Canadian organic farmers were certified under the American standard. Now that farmers can receive Canadian certification, export opportunities have increased. “In the past, if I wanted to sell to the EU, I would have to be inspected and certified by a body in the EU,” said Strebchuk. While most organic cereal production is still exported to the U.S., he believes trade opportunities with the EU and Japan are on the rise. There is demand for all types of organic cereal crops, but wheat and oats top the list. Food-grade cereal grains such as milling wheat have the biggest market, whereas there is less interest in feed grains. “There seems to be a greater demand for oats, and I think that’s mostly because of your granola bars, your cereals, things like that,” said Strebchuk. Gordon Wood is an AOPA director who farms south of Red Deer. “Right now, we’re selling organic wheat to a flour mill in Calgary, and then we’re growing organic wheat for people to grind for themselves.” He said the demand is great enough he will need to expand his 250-acre operation to keep up. The direct-to-buyer marketing process often used sets the organic industry apart from conventional. “If I want to sell my grain, I’m calling multiple buyers to try and find the best price,” said Strebchuk. There are many individual opportunities to market grain in relatively small quantities. Strebchuk noted this niche includes spelt, Kamut and Red Fife, though he sticks to standard varieties on his farm. Organic farmers also supply grain to the craft brewing industry. Microbreweries are invested in the creation of products that are uniquely tasty and tell a compelling story. To this end, they may use locally grown organic malting barley. “They can put the face of the farmer that they bought the grain from on their label and say this is locally grown,” said Strebchuk. “That fits hand in hand on the organic side of things, because we’ve been [telling individual farm stories] for years.”