Two CAPI conferences hear about lots of ideas that won't be easy to implement.Ottawa—Moving to sustainable agriculture practices receives plenty of platitudes but making them actually happen won't be a simple endeavour, two conferences sponsored by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute have concluded.The conferences in Calgary and Guelph earlier this year heard from a long list of academic and industry presenters who have been researching topics related to sustainability in food production.In a report on the Guelph gathering, CAPI concluded that while farmers are making progress in improving their environmental performance for future sustainability, much remains to be addressed. “New knowledge, better practices, data, metrics, innovation and new technologies will be key for helping address these challenges.“The government has a role to play by investing in research and development, promoting agricultural extension and knowledge dissemination and providing incentives to farmers to adopt sustainable production practices, as well as influencing international standards and trade rules,” the report said. “This can be done through subsidies and more efficient regulations that allow market prices to signal market preferences.“Industry too has a role to play, by innovating and responding to changing market demands for environmentally-responsible and sustainable products, by promoting best management practices (BMPs), by developing transparent systems for verifying sustainable production practices and through collaboration across supply chains with partners.”President Keith Currie of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said farmers respond to market signals as they strive to be profitable. New products offer promising returns and new technologies such as precision equipment and GPS are helping farmers save on costs, he said. To pass on the farm to the next generation means the soil has to healthy.“Farmers are willing to do their societal duty, but question whether they should be the ones to pay for what society wants. Consumers seem to be unaware of how much farmers are contributing to sustainability,” he said. “Greater understanding is needed by consumers and better connection and communication between all players would help.”Professor Ralph Martin of the University of Guelph said organic agriculture plays an important role in reducing agriculture's environmental impact. As they don't use synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, their crops rely on “natural sources instead, such as crop residues and legumes in crop rotations. While the resulting crop yields are 20 to 25 per cent less than conventional agriculture, there are environmental benefits, such as 56 per cent less energy use per unit, 34 to 51 per cent lower nutrient inputs and biodiversity benefits. However, more land will be required to feed the growing population, unless less food is wasted and less meat is eaten, requiring less feed at the same time.”President Brian Gilroy of the Canadian Horticulture Council, said Canadian farmers raise more than 100 crops, promote strong environmental stewardship and continue to evolve to produce for changing consumer demands. Fruit and vegetable growers are using less pesticides and fumigants through Integrated Pest Management practices resulting in a 50 per cent reduction in pesticide use over the last 30 years. They also follow BMPs such as crop rotations to reduce disease and pest risk naturally.“Apples are a good news story from an environmental point of view. Each acre in apple trees stores 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide, releases 15 tonnes of oxygen, and provides12 BTU of cooling power. Producers have made significant productivity improvements over time: today we produce 1200 trees per acre compared to 300 trees per acre in 1994.“Agricultural extension services, which used to be provided by government and were tailored to local conditions, are now being provided by third party input suppliers, and are thus less location specific,” he said. “On the buyer side of things, increasingly downstream players are making decisions that affect producers.” Producers need to become more proactive, or others will determine market specifications and some farmers may be driven out of business.Andrea de Groot, Managing Director of the Ontario Pork Industry Council, said a majority of pork producers follow soil stewardship practices such as soil testing, water meters, manure sample tests and pesticide management. More than 80 per cent have Environmental Farm Plans and more than 50 per cent employ Nutrient Management Plans.These and other conference presentations along with information on many other topics are available through the CAPI web site https://capi-icpa.ca/Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.