Conferences and Workshops

Workshop Report

AIC's overarching objective is to help build scientific capacity and understanding required to get more for less from our agricultural resources. And to do so in a sustainable and profitable way. "Sustainable" includes economic, social and environmental objectives, all three of which must be met.

It was just last year that the high cost of fossil fuels - and the higher cost to buyers of many agricultural commodities - prompted riots in developing countries. Truckers of fructose corn syrup barricaded highways in some North American cities. Food manufacturers were increasingly vigilant about the dynamic interplay between ag-bio and energy inputs to food production. Canadian farmers were making hard decisions about whether to plant for food, bio-fuels, or both.

The upward pressure on food prices at the retail level has weakened since 2008. Commodity markets, after a year of record grain prices, have turned downward creating pressures of a different kind on farmers. Energy costs have moderated for the moment. But the fact remains: over the long term, society must find ways of ramping up both food production and energy supply.

Forecasting oil prices is done in the context of evolving science, technology and changing macro-economic conditions. Thus, it is prone to error. So too is forecasting long-term trends in agricultural supply and demand. Nevertheless, current wisdom suggests pressures mounting for both increased food supply and increased reliance on non-fossil fuels, including bio-fuels.

Regarding fuel, according to Dr. Fatih Birol, Chief Economist at the International Energy Agency, "One day we will run out of oil. It will not be today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day. The earlier we start, the better, because all our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously."

Regarding food, readers will appreciate the consequence on commodity and food supply of growing populations; the combination of growing income and rural-urban migration on demand for more protein and other high income consumer goods in developing countries; and the pressures on arable land for non-agricultural development.

Clearly we need to support inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral collaboration to make progress in enhancing productivity all along the food and bio-energy value chains.

To that end, AIC organized a workshop in Calgary on December 4. It followed a very successful Grow Canada conference, whose theme also was employing science for the sustainable use of agriculture, but with an emphasis on one challenge: food security. The purpose of the AIC workshop was to provide AIC members with an opportunity to meet with colleagues who shared an interest in making the best use of the sustainable resource to meet two needs: food and fuel.

Interestingly, only 4 of the 36 participants were AIC members. Those who attended came from along the knowledge chains in food and bio-fuels and along the food and energy value chains. Their professional backgrounds were equally diverse: city planners, engineers, pesticide specialists, beef producers, university faculty. They shared a common interest in the challenges and opportunities for harnessing agriculture's potential to produce food and fuel.

It was most appropriate that the workshop was chaired by an AIC member, Dr. John Kennelly, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta. That faculty's transdisciplinary commitment is focussed on ensuring that the men and women engaged in teaching and researching within the natural sciences, the social sciences and the arts and humanities are able to collectively find comprehensive solutions to such challenges as securing both food and fuel from agriculture.

Workshop participants explored the reasons behind these exciting - some would say daunting - challenges with Kelly Maher, Assistant Director of the Biorefining Conversions Network at the University of Alberta. She reviewed both demand and sources of supply for bio-fuels and food, globally and within Canada. Her review of advances in agronomy, genetics, and molecular biology leading to increased feedstock yields - coupled with progress in finding multiple pathways and multiple streams to maximize feedstock value - gave participants cautious optimism.

The relationship between food prices, growth in demand for biofuels and global capacity to increase feedstock yields sustainably was investigated by Don O'Connor, President of (S&T)² Consultants. Participants agreed that it is not simply research funding that is required for another "green revolution." Equally important are higher prices in the developing world to provide producers there with the opportunity to be competitive and to increase production. The opportunity will exist only as long as the demand for feedstocks for both food and biofuels is strong.

Of the various sources (and generations) of biofuels, Bern Kotelko, President of Highland Feeders Ltd., highlighted the use of waste generated on the farm. In order to stay competitive and minimize environmental impact, a shift towards waste utilization and reduction is required within the agriculture industry. So too are the right price incentives for technology adoption. Workshop participants took advantage of the opportunity to learn how objectives of beef production - such as low stress environment; using technology to provide full animal trace back; and catering to more environmental and health conscious consumer - can be wholly integrated with the use of farm waste for energy production.

Workshops work best if participants are prepared to "blue sky" possibilities. Under the guidance of Terry G. Tyler, Chief Technology Officer, Enmax Corporation, participants reviewed the effects of telecommunications, peak oil, nanotechnology, the "technopoly effect" (i.e. it takes 10 years to accommodate technology change into our values) and conflicting demands for water rights on agriculture's prospects to meet food and fuel demands. The prognosis: the prospects are good but will require support for basic science, advances in adoption of emerging technologies, responsible public policy, and above all, an integrated approach.

The workshop concluded with a presentation by Ron Pidskalny, AIC member and President of Strategic Vision Consulting, on possible strategies for advancing the profitable and sustainable production of food and fuel from agri-resources. This kicked off a lively discussion on funding for research and commercial or public institutions to strengthen Canada's agri-industry by providing high-performing crop varieties to producers and processors.

Did the workshop add value to the ongoing effort to make the best use of the agri-resource base? Did participants leave better equipped to find solutions to producing more food and fuel and doing so in a sustainable and profitable way? The response of participants was a resounding "Yes," followed by encouragement for AIC to hold more workshops across the country on similar topics pertaining to the multiple societal demands to which agriculture can respond.

Myles Frosst
CEO