How innovation in agriculture can help protect biodiversity

A new report published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services has garnered significant attention recently, as it should. According to the report we are losing biodiversity around the world at an alarming rate. This is an issue that we must tackle collectively – as countries, industries and societies around the world.

As the report notes, there are a wide range of factors that impact biodiversity, including climate change, disease, urbanization, deforestation, mining and agriculture. And as such, there is no one single solution to the problem. Protecting our planet’s biodiversity is in all of our best interests and it will take a collective commitment that leverages science and innovation across every sector of the economy.

There is no question that agriculture has a significant impact on biodiversity. But as the industry that grows food, which is critical to human existence, it is important that we find ways to continue to produce food that limits any negative impacts on biodiversity.

And we have made significant progress on this front. Agriculture has become more sustainable than it’s ever been before. We can now grow more crop per acre of land than at any other time in history. Growing more on existing land means we can leave wildlife habitats untouched.

In Canada, we have embraced agricultural innovation to help drive sustainability. Pesticides and biotech crops help farmers make the most of the land already being used to grow food, which allows them to leave natural habitats untouched and support biodiversity.

Without these tools, farmers would need 50 per cent more land than they use today to grow the same amount of food. To put that into perspective, that’s more than the total area covered by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. combined.

Plant science innovations also help farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut back on fuel use. These same technologies also help farmers improve the quality of their soil and make it less vulnerable to wind and water erosion.

Canadian farmers were among the early adopters of biotech crops more than two decades ago. Herbicide-tolerant crops enabled the wide-spread move toward conservation tillage practices. These crops allowed farmers to apply an herbicide directly to a crop to control weeds without harming the crop. This significantly limited the need for farmers to till – or plow – their fields to remove weeds.

If you ask almost any Canadian farmer who has embraced conservation tillage practices they’ll tell you how it has helped them build organic matter and improve the health of their soil. And since a handful of soil contains more living organisms than there are people on the planet – this has a major impact on protecting biodiversity.

And not only have these tools helped agriculture be more productive but the industry has also made significant technological advances in the last 60 years, developing products that are safer and more targeted than ever before. Consider this: pesticides that hit the market today use 95 percent less active ingredient per acre than they did 60 years ago. This ultimately means farmers can apply lower doses of pesticides while still protecting their crops against insects, weeds and diseases.

And on top of that, today’s pesticides degrade in the environment much more quickly than their predecessors. All this means we’re doing a better job of limiting any unnecessary impact of agriculture on the environment while still equipping our farmers with the tools they need to grow safe, nutritious and abundant crops.

Fortunately, Canada’s science-based regulatory system for both biotech crops and pesticides created an environment where farmers could leverage the power of these technologies to improve their farming operations all while protecting human health and safety.

But not all governments embrace this sort of science-based approach to regulating agricultural innovations. And poorly constructed agricultural policies around the world are standing in the way of innovation, and as a result, driving unsustainable food production practices that threaten global biodiversity.

Europe, whose policies severely limit farmers’ access to biotech crops and pesticides that have been deemed safe by countries around the world, is a prime example. Without access to these tools, European farmers simply cannot meet the demands of the European population for food and feed.

Europe must then import food from elsewhere, effectively exporting their environmental footprint for food production to countries like Brazil, which is converting forests into agricultural land to meet demand. The startling trend of deforestation in various parts of the world has devastating consequences for biodiversity.

The question of how we can protect global biodiversity is incredibly complex and multifaceted. And agriculture is without a doubt part of the equation – or as I see it, part of the solution. History has shown that the agriculture industry has used the power of innovation to drive sustainability and we are poised to continue down this path.

But we need governments to be enablers, to create policy environments that support innovation so that farmers can continue to grow safe, high quality food all while protecting the environment. Agriculture will be part of the solution if governments let it.

Pierre Petelle,
President and CEO, CropLife Canada