Food Farm Talk

Agriculture played an important role in colonialism and the dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Today it could help build prosperity and reconciliation. We hear from Chief Cadmus Delorme on the history of agriculture and colonialism as it is expressed on Cowessess First Nation, Treaty 4 in Saskatchewan.

In this episode, Chief Delorme traces the history of his First Nation from before European contact, through signing of Treaty 4, the failure to implement Treaty obligations, and the roadblocks to real First Nations engagement in agriculture from the start. Support for European-style agriculture was promised in the numbered treaties of western Canada like Treaty 4, only to be quickly subverted.

Chief Delorme talks about many of the issues regarding these treaties and the Indian Act. The Indian Agents’ power to control First Nations people, the pass system requiring the Indian Agents’ approval of sales of grain and cattle, and arbitrary reductions in the size of the Cowessess reserve land area.

This is a brutal irony as Indigenous people and agriculture have a long history in Canada and on Turtle Island going back thousands of years. The agricultural innovations from Indigenous peoples in the Americas transformed global agriculture after European contact.

This presentation was part of virtual conference in September 2021 on Indigenous Agricultural Innovation held by FHQ Developments and is used with their permission.

Chief Cadmus Delorme, Cree (Nehiyaw) and Saulteaux (Anishinabe), is Chief of the Cowessess First Nation. He came to national attention in 2021 when 751 unmarked graves were identified on Cowessess First Nation. He holds a Master of Public Administration and Bachelor of Business Administration from the First Nations University of Canada, and was also named in CBC Saskatchewan’s Future 40, a list of leaders, builders and change-makers under the age of 40.

This episode is part of a series on different aspects of Indigenous agriculture. In the next episodes, Cadmus Delorme explores the challenges and opportunities for First Nations’ pursuing prosperity through business development in agriculture and agri-business.

Cowessess First Nation

A Brief History of Indigenous Agriculture

Canada’s First Nations people were country’s first farmers

File Hills Qu’Appelle (FHQ) Developments

File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council

Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations

Indigenous Peoples in Canadian agriculture - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Indigenous Agricultural Innovation with Thomas Benjoe - Agriculture played an important role in colonialism and today it can hopefully help build reconciliation. We explore how First Nations can pursue prosperity through business development in agriculture and agri-business with Thomas Benjoe, President/CEO of FHQ Developments in Saskatchewan, chair of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, and 2021 Globe Report on Business Changemaker. Thomas and FHQ held a virtual conference in September 2021 on Indigenous Agricultural Innovation. 

FHQ Developments is the economic development entity of the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, itself a council of 11 First Nations in the Treaty 4 area of Saskatchewan including Saulteaux (Anishnabe), Lakota, Dakota, Nakoda and Cree (Nehiyaw). We explore the opportunities and challenges of First Nations’ economic development including access to capital and credit as well as skills development and training.

Indigenous people and agriculture have a long history in Canada and on Turtle Island. The agricultural innovations from Indigenous peoples in the Americas transformed global agriculture after European contact, with new crops like maize, beans and potatoes. And European-style agriculture was promised as the means for livelihoods in the numbered treaties of western Canada, only to be quickly subverted. Over the next couple of months, we will be doing a series of shows on different aspects of Indigenous agriculture.

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More information:

File Hills Qu’Appelle (FHQ) Developments 

 https://fhqdev.com/

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File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council

https://fhqtc.com/

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Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations

https://www.fsin.ca/ 

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Indigenous Peoples in Canadian agriculture - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/indigenous-peoples-canadian-agriculture

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For Thomas Benjoe, building Indigenous wealth is a fundamental part of reconciliation

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/rob-magazine/article-breaking-barriers-for-thomas-benjoe-building-indigenous-wealth-is-a/

Canada now has new programs aimed at helping farmers adopt practices to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The new federal climate plan released in December 2020 and Budget 2021 made major commitments for funding agriculture climate programs. But are these programs well designed and will they actually help farmers change practices? We explore this topic with Brent Preston of Farmers for Climate Solutions. They advocated for the new $200M On-Farm Climate Action Fund for cover crops, fertilizer management and rotational grazing. Others include $185M for Agriculture Climate Solutions focused on Living Labs research collaborations, $165.7M for Clean Ag Tech Program, and some part of the $631M Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund aimed at agriculture. And the new federal-provincial funding framework for 2023-2028 is being negotiated right now. Will it also increase agri-environmental funding? Canada dramatically underfunds agri-environment efforts compared to Europe and the United States. Listen to find out more about climate and agriculture.

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Links:

Canada’s Revised Climate Plan

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan.html

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On-Farm Climate Action Fund

https://www.canada.ca/en/agriculture-agri-food/news/2021/08/helping-farmers-to-reduce-ghgs-and-improve-resiliency-to-climate-change.html

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Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-funding/programs/nature-smart-climate-solutions-fund.html

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Farmers for Climate Solutions

https://farmersforclimatesolutions.ca/

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The Power of Soil: An Agenda for Change to Benefit Farmers and Climate Resilience

https://www.greenbelt.ca/the_power_of_soil

In this episode, the excellent and insightful agri-food power panel discussion continues on the topics of markets, sustainability and incentives. Mel Luymes chairs the panel of very knowledgeable people in Ontario agriculture, Crystal Mackay, an agriculture communicator, Dan Petker, a Norfolk farmer, Cher Mereweather, president of Provision Coalition, a food sustainability partnership, and Alfons Weersink, economics professor at University of Guelph. This discussion is inspired by Roger Martin’s ideas in his book “When More is not Better”.

This is the fourth and final of four episodes focused on the ideas raised by management guru Roger Martin in his talk and book “When More is not Better” at the virtual Midwest Cover Crops Council Conference on February 24, 2021. These are made available courtesy of Soils at Guelph.

Roger Martin is professor emeritus and former Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He grew up in Wallenstein, Ontario where his family was active with an agri-business in the feed industry. "There is a trade-off between efficient and effective…we’ve been pushing efficiency so hard that it is now having counterproductive impacts on life, the economy, the environment."

In agriculture, our attention naturally goes to bushels per acre, feed conversion efficiency, and other efficiency measures. But other proxies – profit per acre, soil organic matter, annual soil loss – are necessary to develop a holistic picture of whether our farm enterprises are pursuing efficiency at the expense of resilience.

More information:

https://rogerlmartin.com/

https://mccc.msu.edu/

https://soilsatguelph.ca/

https://www.headlands.ca/

https://loft32.ca/

https://provisioncoalition.com/

https://www.uoguelph.ca/fare/bios/f_weersink.html

https://twitter.com/petkerfarm

Listen to a power panel from Ontario agriculture discuss balancing efficiency and resilience in agriculture. Mel Luymes chairs the panel of Crystal Mackay (Loft32), Dan Petker (Norfolk farmer), Dr. Alfons Weersink (University of Guelph), and Cher Mereweather (Provision Coalition) that unpacks what these ideas from Roger Martin mean for the agri-food industry.

"When More Is Not Better", thoughts from Roger L. Martin, on farm resilience, presented at the virtual Midwest Cover Crops Council Conference on February 24, 2021. Roger Martin is professor emeritus and former Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He grew up in Wallenstein, Ontario where his family was active with an agri-business in the feed industry. "There is a trade-off between efficient and effective…we’ve been pushing efficiency so hard that it is now having counterproductive impacts on life, the economy, the environment."

In agriculture, our attention naturally goes to bushels per acre, feed conversion efficiency, and other efficiency measures. But other proxies – profit per acre, soil organic matter, annual soil loss – are necessary to develop a holistic picture of whether our farm enterprises are pursuing efficiency at the expense of resilience.

More information:

https://rogerlmartin.com/

https://mccc.msu.edu/

https://soilsatguelph.ca/

https://www.headlands.ca/

https://loft32.ca/

https://provisioncoalition.com/

https://www.uoguelph.ca/fare/bios/f_weersink.html

https://twitter.com/petkerfarm

Roger Martin, the world’s #1 management thinker, continues his conversation with Mel Luymes (Principal, Headlands Ag-Enviro) on the perils of obsessively pursuing efficiency in agriculture, and how agriculture can become more resilient.

"When More Is Not Better", thoughts from Roger L. Martin, on farm resilience, presented at the virtual Midwest Cover Crops Council Conference on February 24, 2021. Roger Martin is professor emeritus and former Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He grew up in Wallenstein, Ontario where his family was active with an agri-business in the feed industry. "There is a trade-off between efficient and effective…we’ve been pushing efficiency so hard that it is now having counterproductive impacts on life, the economy, the environment."

“There is a trade-off between efficient and effective…we’ve been pushing efficiency so hard that it is now having counterproductive impacts on life, the economy, [the environment]. Pushing things to the extremes leads to extreme outcomes.”

In agriculture, our attention naturally goes to bushels per acre, feed conversion efficiency, and other efficiency measures. But other proxies – profit per acre, soil organic matter, annual soil loss – are necessary to develop a holistic picture of whether our farm enterprises are pursuing efficiency at the expense of resilience.

More information:

https://rogerlmartin.com/

https://mccc.msu.edu/

https://soilsatguelph.ca/

"When More Isn’t Better", thoughts from the world’s #1 management thinker, Roger L. Martin, on farm resilience, presented at the virtual Midwest Cover Crops Council Conference on February 24, 2021. Roger Martin is professor emeritus and former Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He grew up in Wallenstein, Ontario where his family was active with an agri-business in the feed industry. "There is a trade-off between efficient and effective…we’ve been pushing efficiency so hard that it is now having counterproductive impacts on life, the economy, the environment."

Following the theme of his latest book, WHEN MORE IS NOT BETTER: Overcoming America’s Obsession With Economic Efficiency, Martin participated in a keynote conversation with Mel Luymes (Principal, Headlands Ag-Enviro) to discuss the perils of obsessively pursing efficiency in agriculture, and how integrative thinking can help agriculture become more resilient. 

“There is a trade-off between efficient and effective…we’ve been pushing efficiency so hard that it is now having counterproductive impacts on life, the economy, [the environment]. Pushing things to the extremes leads to extreme outcomes.”

In agriculture, our attention naturally goes to bushels per acre, feed conversion efficiency, and other efficiency measures. But other proxies – profit per acre, soil organic matter, annual soil loss – are necessary to develop a holistic picture of whether our farm enterprises are pursuing efficiency at the expense of resilience.

More information:

https://rogerlmartin.com/

https://mccc.msu.edu/

https://soilsatguelph.ca/

The Agriculture Carbon Alliance was recently launched and Keith Currie talks about the Alliance membership and purpose and the federal climate plan. Keith is the Vice-President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, a member of the Alliance, a Simcoe county farmer and past president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. The new federal climate plan has many climate-related proposals and funding for agriculture, but few details. The Alliance hopes to engage the federal government on those proposals. We discuss carbon tax, soil health, offsets, fertilizer use, technology and nature-based solutions. 2021 should be an interesting year for climate policy and agriculture.

https://agcarbonalliance.ca/

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/climate-plan-overview/healthy-environment-healthy-economy.html

Emily, Abdul and Paul roundup some of the hot topics in agri-food in the last six months. These include Quebec's new Sustainable Agriculture plan, Canada's new climate plan and agriculture, food price trends in 2021 and labour unrest in agriculture, especially India. 

More information:

https://www.quebec.ca/gouv/politiques-orientations/politique-bioalimentaire/agriculture-durable/

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/climate-plan-overview.html

https://www.dal.ca/sites/agri-food/research/canada-s-food-price-report-2021.html

Farmers for Climate Solutions' Director Karen Ross talks to Paul Smith about their report “A better future starts on the farm: Recommendations for recovery from COVID-19 in Canadian agriculture” and its five recommendations to support farmers recovering from the pandemic while helping them deal with the long-term effects of the climate crisis. Their lobbying efforts resulted in a key phrase added to the recent Throne Speech "recognize farmers, foresters, and ranchers as key partners in the fight against climate change, supporting their efforts to reduce emissions and build resilience." Hopefully, additional measures for farmers and ranchers will appear in the new federal climate plan, expected soon. The five recommendations are discussed.

https://farmersforclimatesolutions.ca/policy-solutions

https://www.canada.ca/en/privy-council/campaigns/speech-throne/2020/speech-from-the-throne.html

https://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/agriculture-and-climate/agricultural-practices/climate-change-and-agriculture/greenhouse-gases-and-agriculture/