| | From AESA Council’s Chair
by John Kolk
Poultry Industry Council
When neighbours ask me what the Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture (AESA) Council does, I struggle to get the important information out in a short conversation. I usually mention that it is a unique partnership between the farm sector, agricultural processing sector, government, and non-government organizations focused on environmental sustainability.
On the odd occasion when someone presses me on ‘What does AESA actually do?’, I talk about the funding of the rural extension staff, partnerships, and the tie-ins with various other programs run by conservation groups, municipalities, and other federal and provincial departments. Council also shares information, tries to look forward to address upcoming issues, and engages the production and processing sectors and the provincial Agriculture Minister on important sustainability issues.
This issue of Green Matters really helps to answer the question of what AESA actually ‘does’ as it affects the farm and ranch community. We have great AESA Program staff in the Conservation and Development Branch of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development that looks to Council for direction and gives us feedback on important issues in the agriculture sector. But that feedback needs to turn into actions through programs that are easily accessed and activities that make sense at the farm and ranch level.
The demand by Council members that environmentally sustainable programs be streamlined and farm-friendly led to the Putting the Pieces Together Workshop last spring and a follow-up workshop this coming spring. Council recognized that the multitude of programs needed to be acknowledged and, from the farm and ranch point of view, organized and coordinated for easy access. By next spring, we plan to have a web-based database on these programs at the fingertips of the many extension people who interact directly with farmers and ranchers.
Council has also worked to bring some high quality information to the greenhouse gas issue, the emerging field of environmental goods and services, and the development of the Environmental Farm Planning process as a tool for ranchers and farmers. These are not issues that Council has to ‘do’, so much as coordinate and encourage an industry voice in the policy and practical application.
Council members have also played a part in encouraging the environmental component of the Agricultural Policy Framework (APF) to coordinate with the many activities needed to encourage on-farm practice change. On-farm practice change requires a blend of attitude, knowledge, tools, and targeted incentives working together in a farm-friendly process. Most producers are committed to stewardship, caring for their land and resources as best they can given time and financial constraints. The APF, the Environmental Farm Plan process, the Canada-Alberta Farm Stewardship Program and other stewardship programs together form a piece that addresses the desire to farm and ranch in environmentally sustainable ways.
So, what does AESA Council ‘do’? It brings stakeholders together to ensure that the farm and ranch community has the tools, information, contacts and resources to be the good stewards they choose to be. |
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