Rules will now largely be aligned with conventional breeding methods for research and development into plants although scientists will still be required to notify the government of any research trials.

“It is a tool that could help us in order to tackle some of the biggest challenges that we face — around food security, climate change and biodiversity loss,” Eustice said in a statement announcing the relaxation.

The technology has faced the same stringent rules which apply to research that involves genetic modification.

Gene editing is different from genetic modification (GM), as it does not result in the introduction of DNA from other species.

Proponents argue gene editing can be seen as equivalent to conventional breeding but many times faster.

The change in rules will not apply to the marketing of plants to consumers with both gene editing and genetic modification still subject to the same rules although a further review is planned.

The European Union applies the same rules to both gene editing and genetic modification although the European Commission has launched a review which could open the door to a possible loosening of restrictions for gene-edited plants.

The change just applies to England as agriculture is devolved within the United Kingdom and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own rules.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nigel Hunt.

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The company is working toward full operation at the world’s largest pea plant by early 2022, she said.

“To date we have picked up hundreds of loads of peas from growers and we are using these peas to fine-tune and commission our processing and quality assurance systems at the plant,” Finley, the company’s communications and public affairs manager, said via email.

Construction of the 200,000-square foot facility, costing about $500 million, was completed late last year, and Roquette purchased peas to calibrate the production equipment.

“Our goal is to have consumer-ready protein available during the summer of 2021 and the plant will reach full production capacity in early 2022,” Finley said.

Ground was broken for the plant in 2017, but work was delayed for more than a year as Roquette upgraded its design, with construction resuming in October 2018.

Once operating at full capacity, the Roquette plant will be able to process about 125,000 tonnes of yellow peas per year. Also, the plant is able to process conventional and organic peas, with plans to buy 5,000 tonnes of Manitoba-grown yellow peas during the first year of operations.

Up to 120 people will be employed at the plant, Finley said.

Prices for yellow peas have been steady for about the last month, but have climbed more than $4 per bushel during over the last year, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. Prices currently range from $9.25 to $11.25 per bushel.

Nearly 4.6 million tonnes of peas were produced in Canada in 2020, according to Statistics Canada. Of that, about 2.5 million tonnes were in Saskatchewan, with 1.8 million tonnes in Alberta, while Manitoba harvested about 246,000 tonnes.

Roquette has said it fully expects the amount of peas produced in Manitoba to increase.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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The paper proposes changes to agriculture practices that could help the sector become part of the solution to both major issues.

Compiled by Darrin Qualman in collaboration with the NFU, the 102-page document titled Tackling the Farm Crisis and the Climate Crisis: A Transformative Strategy for Canadian Farmers and Food Systems sets out a number of short- and long-term proposals for reducing emissions while also improving farm profitability.

“The farm crisis is real, as is the climate crisis,” said NFU national president Katie Ward in the foreword to the paper. “Left unchecked, the climate crisis will dramatically deepen the income crisis on Canada’s farms as farmers struggle to deal with continued warming, more intense storms, and increasingly unpredictable weather.

“It is clear that climate change represents a major challenge to agriculture, but it also represents an opportunity,” she added.

A focus on high agricultural inputs in order to maximize outputs was cited as a major cause of both rising global temperatures and falling farm profits, with the policies and actions recommended in the report generally moving the industry towards a lower input model.

“The solution to the farm crisis and the solution to the climate crisis are, to a large degree, the same: a decreased dependence on high-emission petro-industrial farm inputs and an increasing reliance on ecological cycles, biology, energy from the sun, and the knowledge, wisdom, and judgment of farm families on the land,” said the report.

The paper outlined numerous policies and practices that would lead to increased efficiencies, including a shift to electricity from fossil fuels.

With synthetic nitrogen fertilizer noted as a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, the paper advocated for a rather balanced minimum-impact no-till (MINT) cropping system.

Such a system, the paper said, would take the most promising organic agriculture practices (crop rotations, intercropping, reduced inputs) and combine those with more conventional no-till practices such as strategic chemical use to best reduce emissions while also improving the bottom line for farmers.

The paper also had a balanced view on livestock. While industrial cattle production has been linked to increased methane levels, cattle and other ruminant animals were also seen as an indispensable part of healthy ecosystems.

While many individual actions highlighted in the paper may help both the climate and farm crises, the paper noted widespread government-led mobilization will be needed if there is to be a transformation of the energy, food, transportation and manufacturing systems.

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Contracts have been filled up, meaning some producers who were waiting for higher prices are out of luck with no options to sell their crops. Some buyers in Western Canada have heard complaints from producers who are frustrated at not being able to find buyers for their malt barley crops.

The malt barley market is “very quiet and that’s kind of unfortunate because there’s some really nice barley out there,” said Scott Shiels with Grain Millers at Yorkton, Sask.

Shiels has been recommending producers hang onto their malt barley and wait it out, but he knows they can’t always afford to. Some producers have been inquiring about selling it as feed — which would mean taking a hit financially.

The organic hemp market has been struggling also. China has been flooding the international marketplace with cheap organic hemp, dragging down the price. In Canada organic hemp has fallen to $1.30 per pound, from $2.25 two years ago.

“I know a number of people that are not putting (hemp) in this year simply because it’s not worth the time and effort,” said Tristan Gill of Westaqua Commodity Group in Vancouver.

Other organic crops are dropping in price too. According to Jason Breault of RW Organics at Mossbank, Sask., organic premiums are starting to fall more in line at two to 2-1/2 times conventional prices, compared to three times in years past.

Breault thinks lower prices are due to more conventional processors moving into the organic business and noticing a large price gap.

The idea among buyers, he said, is “‘Oh, let’s pull ourselves in a bit and see if we can get it to come back and be more realistic.’ And I always agree if we can stay a constant good price it’s better than having highs and lows.”

Some market opportunities are promising for producers starting to plan spring acres. Yellow peas are looking like a good crop to plant due to growth in vegan and vegetarian plant protein markets.

“Pea manufacturers want explicitly yellow peas because when they make the finite finished product, yellow peas have a very white, slightly yellow tinge to it, whereas the green peas are green,” Gill said.

Shiels is expecting to see an increase in oat, wheat and flax acres. Breault also thinks they’ll be an increase in wheat acres — specifically hard red spring wheat.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow her at @ashleymr1993 on Twitter.

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The UBC study, titled “Many shades of gray: The context-dependent performance of organic agriculture,” published Friday in the U.S. journal Science Advances, sets out to “systematically review the scientific literature on the environmental and socioeconomic performance of organic farming.”

The study — led by Verena Seufert of UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES) and Navin Ramankutty, UBC’s Canada research chair in global environmental change and food security — was meant to assess “where previous studies agree and disagree,” and to identify “the conditions leading to good or bad performance of organic agriculture.”

Organic agriculture shows “many potential benefits,” the study said, as well as “many potential costs including lower yields and higher consumer prices.”

However, the study added, “numerous important dimensions have high uncertainty, particularly the environmental performance when controlling for lower organic yields, but also yield stability, soil erosion, water use, and labour conditions.”

“Organic is often proposed a holy grail solution to current environmental and food scarcity problems, but we found that the costs and benefits will vary heavily depending on the context,” Seufert said.

For example, the report’s authors suggest, in countries such as Canada “where pesticide regulations are stringent and diets are rich in micronutrients, the health benefits of choosing organic may be marginal.”

“But in a developing country where pesticide use is not carefully regulated and people are micronutrient-deficient, we think that the benefits for consumer and farm worker health may be much higher,” Ramankutty said in a UBC release.

Another important measure for a farming system’s sustainability, for another example, is the yield of a crop. Most studies so far have compared the costs and benefits of organic and conventional farms of the same size, the UBC researchers said, “which does not account for differences in yield.”

On average, according to previous research, the yield of an organic crop is 19 to 25 per cent lower than under conventional management, the study says, suggesting “many of the environmental benefits of organic agriculture diminish once lower yields are accounted for.”

“While an organic farm may be better for things like biodiversity, farmers will need more land to grow the same amount of food,” said Seufert. “And land conversion for agriculture is the leading contributor to habitat loss and climate change.”

While organic farms typically consume less energy and produce lower greenhouse gas emissions than their conventional neighbours, a farm’s greenhouse gas emissions “might actually be higher under organic management” when its lower yields are taken into account.

On the matter of water quality, an organic field has, on average, lower nitrogen loss and lower pesticide leaching than a conventional farm, the UBC study said. Organic agriculture also uses more recycled nitrogen and phosphorus, introducing less new nitrogen and phosphorus into water systems.

However, once the organic farm’s lower yields are taken into account, the nitrogen loss per unit food produced “might actually be higher.”

Also, the study said, organic farms where large amounts of animal manure are applied would have a “stronger negative impact on water quality” compared to organic farms that use nitrogen-fixing crops as fertilizers.

Organic’s benefits to biodiversty also may not be as clear as they seem, the study suggested. On average, organic management results in a 40 to 50 per cent increase in organism abundance in agricultural fields. Plants and bees have been shown to benefit the most, while “other arthropods and birds benefit to a smaller degree.”

However, the study said, “we don’t know whether organic agriculture provides any benefits for biodiversity if lower organic yields (and thus probably more land to produce food) are taken into account.”

In terms of producing a sustainable livelihood for farmers and farm workers, the study notes organic agriculture is “typically more profitable than conventional agriculture” — but in regions with high labour costs, those margins may shrink for organic operations, which are generally more labour-dependent.

Furthermore, the study said, “organic farmers in low-income countries are usually dependent on export markets and exporting agents and therefore lose some of their autonomy.”

On organic operations, the study noted, farm workers benefit from reduced exposure to “toxic agrochemicals” and from increased employment opportunities in regions with high rural unemployment. On the other hand, “organic farm workers are likely exploited in similar ways to conventional farm workers.”

Though the study suggests organic alone can’t create a sustainable food future, it still has an important role to play. For consumers, buying organic gives them control over and knowledge of how their food is produced, “since it is the only farming system regulated in law.”

“We need to stop thinking of organic and conventional agriculture as two ends of the spectrum,” Seufert said in UBC’s release. “Instead, consumers should demand better practices for both, so that we can achieve the world’s food needs in a sustainable way.” –– AGCanada.com Network

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The plan — announced Friday by Egg Farmers of Canada, an industry group that manages nearly all of the country’s egg supply — comes as various fast-food and quick-service restaurant chains set targets for only buying eggs that come from cage-free hens.

“This isn’t something we’ve done because of companies making announcements,” said Roger Pelissero, a farmer at West Lincoln, Ont., southeast of Hamilton, and first vice-chair for the national group. “We always have in our mind what is best for our hens.”

The organization, which represents over 1,000 egg farms across the country, mapped out a plan that immediately commits egg farmers not to install any new conventional cage housing.

About 90 per cent of egg production in Canada is now in conventional housing, commonly known as battery cages, which are slightly larger than filing cabinet drawers and hold several birds each. About 10 per cent is in enriched housing, free-run, aviary or free-range formats.

The plan, to be overseen by a national working group in collaboration with the entire egg supply chain, calls for a shift to about a 50-50 mix in eight years, moving to about 85 per cent alternative over conventional in 15 years.

“All production would be in enriched housing, free-run, aviary or free-range by 2036, assuming the current market conditions prevail,” the organization said in a release, adding those projections “represent a realistic forecast of what is achievable.”

Manitoba Egg Farmers, for one, already announced in late 2013 it would ban the installation of new conventional cages beyond 2014.

Egg Farmers of Canada said it also hopes to discuss, with stakeholders and consumers, the benefits of the enriched-housing model, “which do not seem to be well or widely understood outside of the industry.”

Enriched housing provides birds with more space per bird than conventional battery cages, along with perches, scratching surfaces and private nesting boxes.

While not free-run or free-range, the enriched model is meant to maintain food safety, reduce mortalities, limit cannibalism and other aggressive behaviours and ensure adequate feed and water for all birds.

“This announcement is a huge shift and we’re confident the market will make it happen before 2036,” said Sayara Thurston, a campaigner with Humane Society International, adding that U.S. farmers have not made a similar pledge.

Egg Farmers of Canada’s announcement follows a pledge Monday from Restaurant Brands International (RBI), operator of the Tim Hortons and Burger King chains, that it would move to 100 per cent cage-free eggs for its Canadian, U.S. and Mexican stores by 2025.

Ontario-based Cara Operations, whose chains in Canada include Swiss Chalet, Harvey’s, Milestones, Montana’s, Kelsey’s, East Side Mario’s, New York Fries and others, announced Thursday some of its brands will shift toward cage-free egg supplies starting this year, with all brands transitioning by 2020.

Mercy for Animals, an animal welfare group known for its releases of undercover video from meat packing plants and barns, had specifically called out Swiss Chalet and Harvey’s in its announcement Monday hailing RBI’s move.

Chains such as Subway, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Starbucks have made similar commitments in recent months, giving various time frames.

Mercy for Animals president Nathan Runkle, in a separate statement Friday, described the Egg Farmers timeline as “simply outrageous… If egg producers truly care about animal welfare, they shouldn’t allow animals to languish in crowded, filthy cages for decades on end.”

The two-decade target is intended to protect farmers from financial hardship, as non-conventional systems are more expensive, Pelissero said.

Canadian farmers will move to several alternatives, including larger cages with amenities like nesting boxes and perches; housing that allow hens access to the entire barn floor; and farms that allow them outdoors.

The Humane Society is disappointed Canadian farmers aren’t phasing out cages entirely as the difference in welfare between birds raised in any type of cage compared with other methods is “night and day,” Thurston said.

Pelissero said there are downsides to any system. Chickens that have too much freedom can peck each other to death.

Canada, which manages supply and prices, produces eggs mostly for its domestic market. Prices paid to farmers reflect costs of production, meaning that egg buyers and possibly consumers will absorb higher prices, Pelissero said.

Most of a farmer’s cost of production is from feed, however.

— Rod Nickel is a Reuters correspondent covering the agriculture and mining sectors from Winnipeg. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

CORRECTION, Feb. 9, 2016: A previous version of this story misidentified Manitoba Egg Farmers as “Manitoba Egg Producers.” We regret the error.

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