Season 2: #9 Rewilding Canada

Renewable industries … forestry, farming and fishing … all can help fight climate change and create sustainable economic opportunities. In a Trump trade war, Canada must reinvent these industries to be self-sufficient, and greener. 

Transcript

8          Rewilding Canada

While the vast north of Canada may be the source of incredible mining revenue, this is only part of the Canadian natural resource treasure trove.  Canada is fighting a trade war that will hurt Canada’s income from natural resources. From forest to farm to the ocean fisheries, Canada’s effort to preserve nature and still harvest its bounty are in peril. Moreover, the real danger in decades to come is climate change. That is the greater threat.

Under these circumstances, there is a solution to all three industries that can fight climate change, earn income, keep jobs, and resist Trump. That solution is to push rewilding as far as it’s possible.  That is, make ecological restoration a national goal, and price commodities as if they were precious, which they are.

The Canadian boreal forest is the largest intact forest on earth, with some three million square kilometres. Ecosystems are not simply trees. The forests support a diversity of life, as all Canadians know. Plants and trees communicate with each other in ways humans are only starting to grasp. Forest ecosystems are a huge part of Canada’s identity.

Today, the pulp and paper industry and the lumber industry employ over 200,000 people, and contribute about $24 billion to Canada’s GDP. These are real people, with families and homes and dreams.

Americans get 30% of their lumber from Canada, 68% of our exports. Most is from British Columbia. The price of lumber in the US rose almost 16% in the past year. The trade war may increase cost of a new house in the United States by five to seven thousand dollars. Lumber from the wild Canadian forests is demonstrably higher quality than lumber from southern tree farms. So something in this difference can help Canada.

In the face of the trade war, Canada could take a lesson from Tommy Douglas, the Saskatchewan premier during the great depression. Constitutional concerns aside, Canada could create a Forest Board to broker the sale of Canadian lumber. The Board would look for new markets, in places like western Europe and Africa.

Currently, 94% of tenures to harvest trees are on Crown land. Earlier, I proposed a Grand Bargain that would give all Crown land to an Indigenous province. A Canadian Forest Board would be within the jurisdiction of this province. Existing tenures would be respected, but all regulation and management would be under the single Board. This Board would engage in what is called supply management that ensures Canada has a sustainable forest.

The lumber would be priced to ensure a fair return to the industry. For sales abroad, the lumber would be branded as “green, sustainable wildwood”.  Based on the market, lumber could be sold, stockpiled or simply left in the ground. The workers, and the industry, would be sheltered by the Board from depressed prices. The flip side is that some producers would miss out when prices spike.

The relationship between forests and the First Nations is critical. Indigenous peoples respect the forest. They also benefit from the lumber industry with revenue and jobs. About 12,000 Indigenous people work in forestry; an increase in the number of Indigenous jobs would make sense.

The Forest Board would make regeneration and rewilding a priority. Carbon capture would be a purpose. Trees must be planted, and forest ecosystems encouraged. Pest control would be needed. The risk of forest fires and drought would be assessed with the goal of sustainability. The Climate Corps, a concept raised as part of the national defense strategy, would be tasked to assist in emergencies like forest fires.

Happily, the industry understands the science of forest ecosystems better and better all the time, and how to invest in sustainability. More jobs are needed for regenerative forestry, not fewer.

There is another option for unsold lumber: engineered wood, also called mass wood. The lumber industry has in recent years made huge strides in engineered wood. This wood can be used for high-strength beams and all kinds of structural applications that would have required steel and concrete in the past. 

In Australia, a 627-foot tower is being built using 580 trees as the major building material. That will be higher than the 25-story Milwaukee tower built with mass timber and a concrete core. Norway has an 18-story tower built largely with engineered wood. Sweden and Austria also have high-rise wooden buildings. Canada is not even in the picture, and we have the lumber.

Using modern design and robotic manufacturing, buildings that use engineered wood could be planned and assembled with guidance from artificial intelligence. They would be sustainable and green.    

Canada is ideally positioned to create a very large green industry based on the manufacture of engineered wood. It would then require a re-education of the construction industry, which has not been trained in how to use the materials. A modern Canadian school of architecture could emerge with a unique Canadian look and feel, based on engineered wood. 

In the meantime, forest regeneration will help Canada fulfill its commitment to the Global Deal for Nature. Under the terms of this international accord, which Canada signed, 30% of all land should be preserved for natural ecosystems by 2030, and 50% by mid-century. 

In short, the creation of a Forest Board is part of a broader industrial strategy. It’s a cornerstone of a climate action plan. It places nature at the heart of a new national Dream. Canada’s forests must be guarded, healed, and harvested in a sustainable manner. Do this, and the forests will help reverse the climate crisis, create jobs, and reduce reliance on the American markets.

The Canadian farm industry has a similar problem, also partly because of the Trump trade war.

Canada is one of the great breadbaskets of the world. However, the farm sector has problems far beyond the Trump tariffs. 

The agribusiness industry is worth $100 billion a year, 7% of the national economy. Canada exports barley, canola and soybeans, wheat, and lentils. This industry is advanced with genetically engineered seeds, robotics, pesticides and insecticides and fertilizers. Agriculture produces over 20% of greenhouse gases around the world.  

Locally, natural ecosystems cannot coexist with intensive farming that relies on chemicals.  Farms also lose topsoil constantly, which leads to poor yields, costing the industry an estimated $3 billion a year. The cost of farmland went up 13% last year as the supply of good land shrinks. 

This is the contradiction inherent in the farm industry. These farms are essential if the planet is to feed billions of people; they are also slowly destroying the land, the soil, water and life.  It is not sustainable.

The family farms, meanwhile, are barely holding onto either their land or their way of life. Encouraged by governments, banks and the food industry, many family farms invested in equipment, seeds, fertilizer and pesticides. They have a love-hate relationship with the banks. They face competition from corporate farms. Over the years it was harder and harder for family farms to survive, and small farms were slowly sold off, all in the name of efficiency.

This is not just a story from the 1950’s. The number of farms in Canada dropped by 30% between 1993 and 2016. Ten per cent of farms earn two thirds of the revenue. The number of working farmers dropped by almost a third, and those under the age of 35 by two thirds. Farm-based communities are shrinking and aging. Family farms are under threat. A climate catastrophe, like drought, can absolutely destroy a farm.  Younger generations then leave, never to return.  

Adding to Canada’s woes, there are very few food processing plants left in Canada. The industry, under trade agreements, became more efficient.  Canadian crops and livestock are shipped south for processing. It is not very easy to ‘buy Canadian’, as we’ve been learning over the past several months. 

In short, Canadian agriculture is a bundle of contradictions. It is a massive industry, and a dying way of life. It feeds the world, and starves the soil. It is a celebration of nature, and an ecosystem killer. All these factors would be weighed as part of a plan for the future of Canadian farming. The Trump tariffs force Canada to change how we farm.

The desired outcome of a new farm plan would be to grow large amounts of food, cut the carbon footprint, re-build ecosystems, pay a fair wage, and make money. Farm communities must grow and rebound.

Organic foods sell for a higher price, and has health benefits for all who consume it.  Government policy at a minimum should favour organic farms that try to be “sustainable and harmonious with the environment.”  This means a dramatic reduction in the use of phosphorus fertilizer, which seeps into groundwater and damages the soil and aquatic life. Neonicotoid insecticides should be completely banned. These “neonics” protect crops from pests, but also kill bees and other pollinators that are essential to all life. Our birds, bees and butterflies are in peril, and chemical farm practices are a major cause. Canada could be much stricter. 

Canada could also favour regenerative farming. Regenerative farming rebuilds the soil and restores biodiversity through conservation tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, composting, and pasture cropping. Like organic farms, regenerative farms avoid monoculture. They plant indigenous crops. It is a throw-back to pioneer farms, but supported by modern science. Hydrogen can replace fossil fuels. Robots can do mundane tasks like weeding and pest control. 

Finally, where soil is unproductive, Canada should support rewilding. That is, help nature to return, and to heal the land, water and ecosystems. This would also contribute to carbon capture, essential to the climate struggle. Rewilded land would be public land where people might live, but with tight rules to protect ecosystems.

If Canada supports organic farming, the competition will not. China owns 400,000 acres of farmland in the United States. Bill Gates owns over a quarter million acres. These huge farms will use genetically modified seeds and chemical herbicides. Corn and soybean will be intensively farmed, and processed into meat substitutes.  Canada should not compete with the corporate chemical conglomerates, but instead target consumers who want high quality organic food. Of course, Canadians would get a national discount.

To achieve all this, Canada may need to rethink the entire concept of farm ownership. We might adapt ideas from the National Farmers Union, which has fought for family farmers for a half century. We might again take inspiration from Tommy Douglas and the old CCF, and promote a revival of collectives and cooperative farms. A single national Farm Marketing Board might provide guidance and coordination to the larger farm community. We might return rewilded land to First Nations. In short, a new farm policy could reverse the problems plaguing the agriculture sector. 

Regeneration supported by new technology can be the future of Canadian farming. This represents a return to the roots of farming. It’s agriculture that cares about climate and ecology and community. To grow this future, we must learn from the past.

The third Canadian resource industry in need of rewilding and regeneration is fishing.  Canada is famously surrounded by three oceans. The protection of water ecosystems can help coastal fishing rebound. The industry in Canada has a science-based approach, but that is not enough to return fishing to the levels that once existed. That may never happen.

The Canadian Navy can protect fisheries from illegal foreign fleets. There can be a strict reduction in the amount of garbage, chemicals, plastics, and other harmful materials that flow into rivers and oceans. Canada is already trying to do that. Yet with climate change warming the oceans, the danger to the ocean ecosystems will continue to grow.

This notwithstanding, the oceans do offer one of the best, greenest tools available to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Ocean kelp, seaweed, has captured carbon for eons. Kelp can grow incredibly quickly.… up to two feet per day, capturing much more carbon than trees. Unlike forests, kelp cannot burn and re-emit the carbon. When kelp dies, it sinks to the bottom, trapping the carbon.  We can help that process.

It is estimated that kelp forests covering one or two per cent of the world’s oceans might capture enough carbon to restore the climate. The planet has about 350 million square kilometres of ocean. One per cent is incredibly vast. 

To use kelp capture, Canada would need to install irrigation grids that float under the surface, and to plant kelp on these grids. They would be equipped with wave-powered pumps and pipes for water circulation. Fully grown kelp would then be taken to the deepest ocean and sunk, capturing the carbon forever. 

Kelp farms have three potential income streams: carbon capture, harvested kelp, and fishing.

First, revenue would come from cap-and-trade markets. This concept has potential so long as there is a cap-and-trade system.  It is already happening. A British company called Seafields Solutions has plans to grow sargassum kelp, harvest it and compress it into bales. These will be sunk to the bottom of the ocean, with money earned in a cap-and-trade.  Trump may destroy this market in some places, but it is only a short-term revenue stream in any case.  

Second, the many varieties of kelp have a multitude of uses. Some seaweed is edible. It’s a good source of iodine, vitamins, zinc, iron, and antioxidants. Kelp is a fertilizer. It can be fed to animals. It can be used as an industrial packing material. It can become a substitute for styrofoam and plastic. It is an insulation. It could replace some paper. It can be used as a biofuel. 

In short, there is a vast, untapped market for kelp in Canada if it is farmed and harvested as a major industry. The research on this still needs to be done.  New private sector companies can create jobs with new green products. The economic potential is massive.

Third, kelp forests help fisheries. Kelp forests would be located in “ocean deserts” where fish stocks are depleted, and ecosystems severely damaged. Certain fish love kelp forests. By growing kelp, new fisheries may emerge. Marine scientists and fishery experts would guide the industry, and ensure that the kelp farms don’t damage native fish stocks and ocean ecosystems. Ideally, kelp farms will regenerate fisheries.

Canada totally controls its territorial waters that extend twelve miles from shore. Canada has a legal 200 mile ‘exclusive economic zone’ on ocean borders. Kelp farms could be placed inside these economic zones. 

Canada is surrounded by oceans. Our opportunities are unlimited. Something as simple as kelp farming may help save the blue planet. It’s a sea change we should welcome.

Climate change has huge implications to forestry, farming, and fishing. The reliance on American markets is another common threat, especially with the Trump trade war. All three industries have the potential to re-invent their economic future, and to address problems that have emerged from this age of fossil fuels. They can be part of the solution to both climate change, and to the trade war that Canada did not want.  No crisis should go to waste.