Open Letter about carbon offset program

[bucket]

To : Sask Pulse Grower
Sask Wheat
Sask Barley
Sask Canola
Premier Moe and Ministers
Conservative MPs

From: a few Concerned farmers

Re: Recent Federal Carbon offset announcements

This letter is written from concerned farmers with regards to recent announcements on a federal Carbon Offset system.

It requires farmers to show “quantifiable” results “ above and beyond what is currently being done”.

This means there will be no way to benefit from the program for farmers that have adapted minimum tillage. Farmers can not reduce their operations any further. On a typical farm , farmers seed , spray at a minimum given the conditions and harvest. They have reduced engine hours on a per acre basis since the adaptation of no till farming.

The question is , what measurable way can farmers increase carbon sequestering to provide the federal government quantifiable results above and beyond what is currently being done?

In our view, this is an expropriation of our contribution to both the economy and the environment. On the environment side , the protocols require quantifiable results above current practices which exempts qualification for most farms. On the economic side of this is the complete ignoring of farmer’s investments in equipment to achieve higher yields while reducing emissions but still providing benefits to the economy though input dealers, grain companies and railways.

The bigger question is how is it that farm groups and the provincial government do not have a response to this announcement. Farm groups on the provincial and by extension the national level have been tasked with being involved in a carbon sequestering program that would benefit farmers since the Saskpulse AGM in January 2020. And all Saskatchewan farm groups for the most part were asked in January 2021 to continue lobbying for carbon credits.

We ask that proper attention on behalf of farmers be paid to this file, as there is quantifiable returns to being paid to sequester carbon.

Why are all groups and political forces that receive their funding and their votes from farmers so silent on this issue?

Regards

[bucket]

Take the time to call your MLA and MP.

The cement industry in Quebec is a large emitter and is exempt. That exemption is a form of a subsidy. Your farm is being used to offset the cement industry.

They are expropriating your investment to the environment.

Every quantifiable measure over and above the current practices of every other industry will be rewarded, and funded by the government for the upgrades and for their contribution to the environment going forward.

Farmers will be left out on their contribution to the environment by their investments out of their own pockets..

Saskatchewan is piggy backing off the federal system as well..

Every farmer should be outraged.

[SASKFARMER]

Good post as a concerned farmer who for over 37 years has been zero tillage I’m pissed.

Slash and burn and till will be the order of the day.

[bucket]

Good post as a concerned farmer who for over 37 years has been zero tillage I’m pissed.

Slash and burn and till will be the order of the day.

I think the frustrating part of this is the farm groups have national counterparts that allowed the announcement to be made that excludes almost every western Canadian farmer..

The province didn't make any noise and by doing nothing they condone it.

Farmers elect both the provincial MLAs and federal Conservative MPs ...they are silent...

Phucking bullshit.

[SASKFARMER]

I think it's so sickening everything we have done to help the environment is thrown out the ****ing window and companies will be given subsidies to change and were punished for being leaders. ****ing sick country.

[SASKFARMER]

This should be on every farmer's mind. Because in just a few years or one more full-term by skippy that will be coming because the stupid Conservatives can't figure out Jack shit right now. Try paying 170 a ton and getting shit all back, thanks to no action at the begining.

Remember the crow check we were all supposed to get.

yea was piss all when done.

[chuckChuck]

SF, you still haven't explained why you think you should be paid for storing carbon in your soils when you don't believe that human caused carbon emissions are causing climate change.

[bucket]

SF3 you still haven't explained why you think you should be paid for storing carbon in your soils when you don't believe that human caused carbon emissions are causing climate change.

Farmers are paying the emissions tax / carbon tax/ price on pollution or whatever you want to call it..

If the science is sound on the emissions and the government arbitrarily sets a price or tax on it....then the science behind sequestering has to be considered sound as well.


If farmers were allowed to get a sequestering payment , the noise on the emission tax might go away..

But I would like to see a study done on equipment hours ..today versus 1985...farmers could be using the same type of engines that was available in 1985 without all the emissions garbage and still say they are helping the environment because engine hours have been reduced. And engine at rest is not polluting.

No study on that simple fact...as an example if I was driving a brand new JD 8640, the reduction in hours over the course of year because of changing farm practices has done more for the environment than a new JD 9470 with all the emissions crap on it.

But no one studies those simple things.

[SASKFARMER]

Chuck, I know in your little mind you want all farmers to be one section farmers singing from the same song sheet and doing sweet **** all. NFU manual one oh one.

[bucket]

SF, you still haven't explained why you think you should be paid for storing carbon in your soils when you don't believe that human caused carbon emissions are causing climate change.

Besides Saskfarmer doesn't have to believe human caused carbon emissions causing climate change...Other people have to believe it and buy into the understanding that sequestering carbon is good for the environment ...

Bill Gates that capitalist is buying offsets so when his buddy Joe decides to pay for those offsets he is number 1 in line...he hasn't done shit to improve the environment.

Buying offsets doesn't clean up the environment....sequestering carbon does...and farmers should be paid to do so.


I think human caused climate change is a scam. But if my farm helps those with their beliefs , I am more than happy to take money from them the same way they force me to pay for my emissions..

Its a give and take thing ...and farmers should be taking advantage of people that want to clean up the environment using my farm land..

I am not too happy about Quebec's cement industry getting an exemption while my investment in minimum till/ notill farming is dismissed to provide offsets to the cement industry.

[bucket]

The other problem is those that represent us national whether it be GGC, CGC, APAS and their national lobby through the CFA....while they say they represent us....it seems the federal government outflanked them on this carbon policy and completely left out western Canadian farmers...


The GGC, CFA, GCC have let farmers down on this file and its a huge disappointment..

Forming the Agriculture Carbon Alliance is about 2 years late. The federal announcement is made and now they have to argue about it instead of being proactive ....same goes for the other national organizations...


But as GGC told me " why worry grain prices are high"

[chuckChuck]

In the real world when it comes to making a case, organizations and individuals that ignore scientific evidence and say that human caused climate change is a hoax or not happening, don't have any credibilty to make the demand that they should be paid for storing carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

[bucket]

In the real world when it comes to making a case, organizations and individuals that ignore scientific evidence and say that human caused climate change is a hoax or not happening, don't have any credibilty to make the demand that they should be paid for storing carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

OR in the real world when it comes to making a case governments that impose a carbon tax based on scientific evidence should not ignore the scientific evidence of sequestering ..

You can't believe the evidence of emissions and ignore the evidence of sequestering ...

You say tomato ...I say twomotoe....

Besides I believe carbon sequestering is good for the soil and the environment ...Trudeau and his minions don't even understand it. And I think Western Canada more than offsets the rest of Canada's emissions...farmland and forests are doing more good than most realize...

This is really a money play...yesterday there was a pilot project announced for grasslands by the CFGA ...alot of tit suckers attached to it ...DU, NCC, Verisco, Radicle etc....

[SASKFARMER]

Oh, **** off Chuck.

Admit you hate any farmer bigger than a section.

Admit you want us all to be equal.

Admit you have zero friends.

[furrowtickler]

OR in the real world when it comes to making a case governments that impose a carbon tax based on scientific evidence should not ignore the scientific evidence of sequestering ..

You can't believe the evidence of emissions and ignore the evidence of sequestering ...

You say tomato ...I say twomotoe....

Besides I believe carbon sequestering is good for the soil and the environment ...Trudeau and his minions don't even understand it. And I think Western Canada more than offsets the rest of Canada's emissions...farmland and forests are doing more good than most realize...

This is really a money play...yesterday there was a pilot project announced for grasslands by the CFGA ...alot of tit suckers attached to it ...DU, NCC, Verisco, Radicle etc....

Trudeau and his minions will refuse to admit it , it does not fit their agenda of wealth redistribution.....