Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
So to give more detail on what I assume you are talking about.
The Liberals want to cut nitrogen emissions 4% per year going forward. Not necessarily nitrogen 'usage' but emissions.
If you dig into the details, and understand how farming works, you quickly realize that fertilizer practices absolutely need to be updated. Up to 40% of nitrogen is generally not absorbed, and just runs off into the ditches and eventually into our water system.
I think JT is a moron, and the Liberals need to be kicked to the curb, but farming is going to change a lot the next 30 years. Of course the tone-deaf Liberals are going about this in the worst way possible, but Canada as a country needs to find a way to do more to protect our wetlands, water sources, etc....all of which are suffering because of the way we live, including farming methods. We also need to a find a way to support the Canadian farmer so that he can adapt to some of these problems. Basically we need smart farming where fertilizer & chemical use is extremely targeted and results in more absorption and less application.
At the same time the Feds need to invest in rehabilitating our wetlands as they help remove a lot of the phosphorous from the water before it hits our fresh water sources. Lake Winnipeg & Netley Marsh are a great example of this. The City of Winnipeg can't properly treat its sewage, plus Lake Winnipeg deals with tons of run off and accumulated water from a variety of rivers, and as a result it is in terrible shape. The Netley Marsh Rehabilitation Project has proven a way to fight back against this, but they can't get enough funding to do it on a large scale. One would think the Liberals would be all over this.
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Thanks for the well thought out response. I agree with the majority of what you said. However with regards to the nitrogen in Fertilizer by saying up to 40% runs off is not accurate. It's possible in extreme cases that that may be the truth but it would not be the majority. It's true that Not 100% of what is applied each year is bio available that year, but it does not necessarily disappear or translocate through the soil. Additionally Fertilizer is expensive and it is not prudent to apply more than is necessary at any point. Most farmers in today's age are soil sampling every year to establish the appropriate amount of each portion of a Fertilizer blend that is necessary for the planned crop for that year. The soil sample gives levels of n,p,k etc at each depth and determines what portion will be available for the crop year and what portion will likely be available in the following year.
I don't like it when politicians take a blanket approach with little understanding of what it is that they are altering. With the world in a strange flux and the cost of Fertilizer more than doubling in less than a year farmers are more careful than ever about how much Fertilizer they are purchasing. I know of tens of thousands of acres that had less than necessary Fertilizer applied this year resulting in lower than the real potential yield on said acres being the likely final result. This is not Benificial to the farmer who is shouldering ridiculous cost increases nor will it be beneficial to the end consumer who will pay more for food.