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2001 October Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development
October 2001 Report—Chapter 1—Section 4
Case Study 1.4.2—Environmental assessment of the national export target
This case illustrates how the Department's goals of economic growth and environmental protection can come into conflict.
The Canadian Agri-food Marketing Council is an advisory body to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the Minister for International Trade. In 1998, the Council set new targets for 2005. It wanted to increase Canada's share of the world's agriculture and agri-food exports to 4 percent, of which 60 percent would be processed goods. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has adopted this national goal and is supporting the industry's efforts.
The Department studied the export target's implications for the performance of the agriculture sector, employment, resource use, trade, the environment, and policy. It identified several environmental risks, including the following:
- More intensive land use, including the use of more fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation, with implications for air pollution, water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Increased use of marginal lands, which are susceptible to degradation. This could result in the conversion of land that provides wildlife habitat, such as wetlands.
- Increased livestock production, which could lead to odours, more contamination of groundwater, and increased tension between farmers and other rural residents. Significant expansion of livestock production may conflict with new greenhouse gas emission targets in the recent Kyoto Accord.
The Department explicitly recognized that pursuing the export target could shift the relative weights of competing public policy objectives and priorities. Information like this is essential to making sound choices.