Ellen Wall

Climate Change Adaptation in Light of Sustainable Agriculture

ABSTRACT Agricultural activity has always included adaptation to a number of diverse stresses and opportunities-elements that continue influencing developments in the agri-food sector. Climate and weather conditions are a good example of factors that require on-going adaptation. With climate change they take on even more significance. Based on data from Canadian producers, this article identifies several climate and weather risk adaptation strategies currently in use and notes their close links to sustainable agriculture practices. The article concludes that the mutually supportive relationship between sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation could be used to justify more government support for sustainable agriculture policies and programs.

Adaptive capacity for climate change in Canadian rural communities

Abstract It is widely acknowledged that promoting the long-term sustainability of rural areas requires an assessment of their capacity to handle stress from a host of external and internal factors such as resource depletion, global trading agreements, service reductions and changing demographics, to name but some. The sustainability literature includes a number of approaches for conducting capacity evaluations but is sparse regarding effective methods and empirical examples. This article provides one approach for assessing community capacity and gives results from its application to a specific Canadian rural community. The authors use general capacity variables and indicators to focus on a particular stress, namely impacts from climate change, and on one type of capacity, namely the capacity to adapt (to such climatic change). A basic framework and profiling tool (‘amoeba’) for describing the resources underlying community adaptive capacity are offered. The researchers provide a set of indicators reflecting social, human, institutional, natural and economic resources and relate them to climate change adaptation at the community level. Although the indicators cannot be replicated exactly for other rural communities, the essentials of the framework and the profiling tool can. In fact it is hoped that the ideas and example found in this article will encourage researchers to enhance and improve on the methods and results for work on community capacity.

Agriculture and ISO 14000

Abstract Many agricultural firms are now considering the environmental consequences of their activities as a means to obtain a competitive advantage. The shift is highlighted by the significant interest in standardized private codes such as those found in ISO 14000. These standardized codes are characterized by signatory firms voluntarily agreeing to abide by a given set of environmental management principles with monitoring conducted by an outside party. Government policy makers are also interested in the ability of such codes to address environmental concerns related to agriculture. This paper examines the feasibility of ISO 14000 for agricultural producers and the policy issues surrounding its application. The costs to an individual firm largely depend upon the availability of an environmental management system and the extent of the changes required under the system. The potential rewards are related to lower costs from reduced input use or lower premiums and increased revenue from new customers or market premiums. Net benefits to ISO 14001 certification will be greater for producers marketing food products than for firms selling a bulk commodity far removed from final consumption. Policy concerns related to ISO 14000 include providing institutional support for promotion and training, tying environmental regulations to the code, and the lack of public accountability in the setting of standards.

New Models for Extension: Introduction

In October, 1999, the Farming Systems Research Project at the University of Guelph hosted the Fourth Biennial Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Farming Systems Association (IFSA).1 During the three day event, papers on a diversity of topics were presented. Each one related to the conference theme: “Sustaining Agriculture in the 21st Century: Thinking Outside the Box.” The conference opened with an address from Professor Fred Buttel whose paper, entitled, “Sustainable Agriculture: Beyond Self-Fulfilling Marginality” pointed to a potential crisis in sustainable agriculture research in the United States, due, in part, to the failure of the land-grant system to make it a priority (Buttel, 2000). He observed that many aspects of the sustainable agriculture approach to date contribute to its marginality. Of particular importance is the exclusion of basic science in favour of applied research. Buttel helped to set the tone for the conference by pointing out that a strategy for ensuring that future sustainable agriculture research has to include addressing issues in both the socio-political realm of the “environmental” movement and the established scientific community. The former means building coalitions between and among various farm and environmental groups as was done in opposition to NAFTA during the early 1990s. The latter requires a renewed appreciation for basic agricultural sciences especially the role plant breeding can play in developing sustainable agricultural systems.