Trudeau to Impose 30% Reduction in Fertilizer Use

 

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Canadian PM wants to reduce fertilizer use by 30% by 2030. A totally impracticable goal that will reduce farm productivity, massively cut farm income, and essentially eliminate Canada’s agricultural exports.

But the news has been met with disdain by farm and agriculture groups in the country that argue imposing such restrictions will shift production to higher-cost, less efficient countries.

“The world is looking for Canada to increase production and be a solution to global food shortages. The federal government needs to display that they understand this,” Alberta Minister of Agriculture Nate Horner said last week in response to the news.

Farming is a major sector of the Canadian economy. In 2021, the country exported nearly $82.2 billion in agriculture and food products, and the agriculture and agrifood sector accounts for roughly 6.8% of its annual gross domestic product.

So I think the real question is: why do they hate Black, Brown, and Yellow peoples. If Canada follows through with this insane plan, Canada’s ability to export any agricultural products would disappear. This will lead to shortages and higher prices here – but starvation in Africa, South and East Asia. Why do liberals hate these people so much that they’d starve them?

Could it be, that they’ve failed mathematics (not to mention logic and ethics) so completely that they don’t understand that their policy to save future peoples from a theoretical environmental disaster hundreds of years in the future will kill people now?

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  1. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN:

    In order to reduce Green House Gas emissions, the Canadian PM wants to reduce fertilizer use by 30% by 2030.

    A totally impracticable goal, that will reduce farm productivity, massively cut farm income and essentially eliminate Canada’s agricultural exports.

    Canada’s farmers will soon be joining with Dutch farmers.

    I hope Ottawa is prepared for massive farm equipment on their streets.

    Yes, they’re prepared.

    https://www.rebelnews.com/farm_credit_canada_spied_on_and_terminated_customers_for_convoy_wrong-think

    Managers at the federal bank for farmers monitored clients for political opposition to Justin Trudeau and hid those investigations from users of FCC’s services and applicants for financing, according to new internal emails obtained exclusively by Blacklock’s Reporter

    Findings of a low Liberal social credit score by Farm Credit Canada bureaucrats could have resulted in a seizure of assets.

    Yes, they practiced on the truckers, and now they’re ready if the farmers get ‘out of line’ now too.

     

    • #31
  2. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Hang On (View Comment):

    If Canadians had not already figured out that Trudeau was an idiot, there is something seriously wrong with Canada.

    I think they know it, but they’re helpless to do anything about him. Sort of like us with the Biden administration.

    What the Biden administration is doing is singularly awful, but the opposition party doesn’t appear to be doing much about it except saying “Vote for us.”

    Well, why? “We’re not them” isn’t enough.

    • #32
  3. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    Prime Minister Zoolander won’t be happy until Canada becomes the next Sri Lanka

    • #33
  4. Misthiocracy has never Member
    Misthiocracy has never
    @Misthiocracy

    FYI:

    The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association claims that Canuckistani grain growers are already net-negative carbon emitters.

    Fertilizers Canada claims that the fertilizer mandate will cost Canuckistani grain growers $48 billion over the next eight years.

    But they’re both filthy corporate lobbyists, so clearly you can’t believe what they say.

    • #34
  5. Misthiocracy has never Member
    Misthiocracy has never
    @Misthiocracy

    Hang On (View Comment):

    If Canadians had not already figured out that Trudeau was an idiot, there is something seriously wrong with Canada.

    Farmers didn’t vote for ‘im, and everybody else thinks food appears magically on store shelves.

    This is not a uniquely Canuckistani problem.

    • #35
  6. Misthiocracy has never Member
    Misthiocracy has never
    @Misthiocracy

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Mr. Trudeau is apparently unaware of what just happened in Sri Lanka. Someone should tell him.

    Or he’s fully aware, but he thinks that, as with the Truckers’ protest, he can ride it out. And he may be right.

    Mr. Trudeau isn’t aware of anything that happens outside the government jet that whisks him off to his many vacations.

    The people who actually run the Prime Minister’s Office may be aware and think they can ride it out.

    • #36
  7. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Misthiocracy has never (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    If Canadians had not already figured out that Trudeau was an idiot, there is something seriously wrong with Canada.

    Farmers didn’t vote for ‘im, and everybody else thinks food appears magically on store shelves.

    This is not a uniquely Canuckistani problem.

    But a lot of farmers did vote for the NDP (a large block of the NDP’s traditional supporters) and the NDP have agreed to prop up the Trudeau minority government until 2025. Hopefully this move breaks that agreement and the NDP will stop supporting the Liberal government. Not that I mind if the NDP  commits politics suicide for Trudeau.

    Trudeau is not only destroying his own reputation, but the liberal party, the NDP – the entire Canadian Left has been completely alienated from their traditional supporters.

    • #37
  8. Misthiocracy has never Member
    Misthiocracy has never
    @Misthiocracy

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    If Canadians had not already figured out that Trudeau was an idiot, there is something seriously wrong with Canada.

    I think they know it, but they’re helpless to do anything about him. Sort of like us with the Biden administration.

    What the Biden administration is doing is singularly awful, but the opposition party doesn’t appear to be doing much about it except saying “Vote for us.”

    Well, why? “We’re not them” isn’t enough.

    The Conservative Party of Canada has been very clear about how it would govern differently. The voters of Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver (who almost exclusively decide who wins federal elections) ain’t interested. They prefer Trudeaupian promises to Tory realities.

    • #38
  9. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Misthiocracy has never (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    If Canadians had not already figured out that Trudeau was an idiot, there is something seriously wrong with Canada.

    I think they know it, but they’re helpless to do anything about him. Sort of like us with the Biden administration.

    What the Biden administration is doing is singularly awful, but the opposition party doesn’t appear to be doing much about it except saying “Vote for us.”

    Well, why? “We’re not them” isn’t enough.

    The Conservative Party of Canada has been very clear about how it would govern differently. The voters of Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver (who almost exclusively decide who wins federal elections) ain’t interested. They prefer Trudeaupian promises to Tory realities.

    I dont agree. I am not sure that the conservative message makes it into the major cities as completely as we’d like. I would wager that a large part of the electorate casts votes without even hearing the conservative message. They vote for the Liberals almost by default.

    • #39
  10. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Ekosj (View Comment):

    It’s all part and parcel of the “Degrowth” movement…

    How do we do it? First we need to reverse all the pro-growth policies as soon as possible. That means all the policies—including fiscal, monetary, and trade policies—that incentivize or conduce larger family sizes and higher per capita consumption. We literally want to achieve a degrowing GDP for some period of time, especially by cutting out the fat such as gas hogs, mansions, yachts, corporate palaces, and palatial government offices.

    We need to explicitly adopt a decreasing GDP as a policy goal—a slowly and steadily decreasing GDP in the wealthier countries—until a healthily sized economy is here again.

    As the European degrowth movement emphasizes, though, it’s not all about GDP. Degrowth entails a radical departure from the social status quo. It means different values, less work hours, deliberately lower consumption…an attitude of “enough” instead of perpetually more. It is worthy of political focus: a capitalized “Degrowth” movement that is truly green; greener than any “green growth” agenda and more focused on limits to growth than the Green parties have ever been.

    ….

    When it comes to sustainability, nothing matters more than population. To be precise, what matters is the population not of angels, but of real human beings whose collective footprint is measured in GDP.

     

    You can’t do this when any debt to GDP figure you pick is this high. Maoist stupidity. 

    • #40
  11. Misthiocracy has never Member
    Misthiocracy has never
    @Misthiocracy

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    Misthiocracy has never (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    If Canadians had not already figured out that Trudeau was an idiot, there is something seriously wrong with Canada.

    Farmers didn’t vote for ‘im, and everybody else thinks food appears magically on store shelves.

    This is not a uniquely Canuckistani problem.

    But a lot of farmers did vote for the NDP (a large block of the NDP’s traditional supporters) and the NDP have agreed to prop up the Trudeau minority government until 2025. Hopefully this move breaks that agreement and the NDP will stop supporting the Liberal government. Not that I mind if the NDP commits politics suicide for Trudeau.

    Trudeau is not only destroying his own reputation, but the liberal party, the NDP – the entire Canadian Left has been completely alienated from their traditional supporters.

    Farmer support for the NDP has fallen off a cliff ever since they abandoned their rural base to focus on currying favour with hip woke urbanites.

    (I’ve heard it argued that Stephen Harper never would have been prime minister if the NDP had make Bill Blaikie their leader instead of Jack Layton, but the NDP also wouldn’t have become the #2 party in Parliament. They changed their focus from winning votes across the entire country to winning seats in the urban centres.)

    They’ve also lost almost all their traditional private sector union support since they now focus on public sector and media union support.

    (I’ve also heard it argued that today’s Tories are your father’s NDP.)

    • #41
  12. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    “We are Canada’s New Democrats. Investing in a Canada where people can realize their full potential and pursue their dreams.”

    Unless those dreams include eating regularly.  They might want to consider how well that worked in Sri Lanka.

    • #42
  13. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I was sitting outside thinking about this a little bit more. The use of microorganisms in agriculture is a relatively new but exciting field of study and practice. It may compensate for the nitrogen and phosphorus that have become fertilizer pariahs. :-) Perhaps the agricultural industry will figure out how to make up for the loss of nitrogen. Perhaps there won’t be the disaster I first envisioned.

    I hope you are right, but I am doubtful. This appears to be the typical leftwing politician trying to force changes in the populace by mandates & expensive subsidies, rather than allowing the continued development of the product until people will gladly pay for it when the product is actually well developed (like solar and wind power, electric cars etc). Being too far ahead of time is as bad as being behind the times. We will get the Solyndra of microorganism based farming.

    • #43
  14. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Wrong thread.

    • #44
  15. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Misthiocracy has never (View Comment):

    Farmer support for the NDP has fallen off a cliff ever since they abandoned their rural base to focus on currying favour with hip woke urbanites.

    (I’ve heard it argued that Stephen Harper never would have been prime minister if the NDP had make Bill Blaikie their leader instead of Jack Layton, but the NDP also wouldn’t have become the #2 party in Parliament. They changed their focus from winning votes across the entire country to winning seats in the urban centres.)

    They’ve also lost almost all their traditional private sector union support since they now focus on public sector and media union support.

    (I’ve also heard it argued that today’s Tories are your father’s NDP.)

    Yes, the workers and farmers have been abandoned for academia and bureaucrats. Unfortunately many in the west hadn’t noticed and continue to vote NDP.

    Canada has the potential to feed the world. I think this should be our national ambition.

    Did you know that only 11% of Canada’s landmass is in private hands. I would like the provincial crown agencies to sell millions of acres to Canadians to get these lands into productive use.

    This will have several immediate benefits – these lands will start to be subject to property taxes, raising revenues in the municipalities (without raising tax rates). Agricultural production and farm incomes would increase as a result. Leading to new investments in food processing plants.  

    • #45
  16. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):
    Did you know that only 11% of Canada’s landmass is in private hands.

    Oh my goodness that’s just astonishing.  How does Canada produce anything in that situation?  Amazing.

    • #46
  17. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):
    Did you know that only 11% of Canada’s landmass is in private hands.

    Oh my goodness that’s just astonishing. How does Canada produce anything in that situation? Amazing.

    To start off, most of Canada is agriculturally useless.

    The Canadian Shield is roughly half of Canada’s land mass. (3 million square miles)

    Another quarter of Canada’s land mass is tundra.

     

    • #47
  18. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):
    Did you know that only 11% of Canada’s landmass is in private hands.

    Oh my goodness that’s just astonishing. How does Canada produce anything in that situation? Amazing.

    To start off, most of Canada is agriculturally useless.

    The Canadian Shield is roughly half of Canada’s land mass. (3 million square miles)

    Another quarter of Canada’s land mass is tundra.

    But I’ll bet there’s a lot of oil under there.

     

    • #48
  19. Phil Turmel Inactive
    Phil Turmel
    @PhilTurmel

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I was sitting outside thinking about this a little bit more. The use of microorganisms in agriculture is a relatively new but exciting field of study and practice. It may compensate for the nitrogen and phosphorus that have become fertilizer pariahs. :-) Perhaps the agricultural industry will figure out how to make up for the loss of nitrogen. Perhaps there won’t be the disaster I first envisioned.

    It will be a disaster.

    This “new but exciting” ploy is the farming equivalent of what software engineers call “vaporware”.  Doesn’t exist, but somehow we should make public policy like it does.  Same thing happens with green power when anyone points out that the “new and exciting” battery technology to solve the intermittancy problem, that was supposed to exist by now, doesn’t.

    Neither is likely to ever exist.  The problem for farming was solved with chemistry.  Very successfully, and very economically, contrary to all predictions.  It embarrasses the elites that humanity engineered its way out of the expected Malthusian hellscape.

    Mustn’t embarrass the elites. ):

    • #49
  20. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):
    Did you know that only 11% of Canada’s landmass is in private hands.

    Oh my goodness that’s just astonishing. How does Canada produce anything in that situation? Amazing.

    To start off, most of Canada is agriculturally useless.

    The Canadian Shield is roughly half of Canada’s land mass. (3 million square miles)

    Another quarter of Canada’s land mass is tundra.

    But I’ll bet there’s a lot of oil under there.

     

    There is a lot of natural gas in the tundra itself… its one of the environmentalist nightmares – that the tundra will warm up, and this methane will be released causing a runaway greenhouse effect …

    • #50
  21. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    There is a lot of natural gas in the tundra itself… its one of the environmentalist nightmares – that the tundra will warm up, and this methane will be released causing a runaway greenhouse effect …

    And given that switching to natural gas has reduced the evil CO2, environmentalists should WANT that gas accessed.

    Neat little catch-22 for them.

    • #51
  22. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    Reminds of me of Neil Young and his quest to convert his old car to electricity. He just winged it, had no particular knowledge or expertise, just thought he could will it into existence.

    Ultimately, it caught fire while sitting one day and burned the barn down.

     

    • #52
  23. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    There is a lot of natural gas in the tundra itself… its one of the environmentalist nightmares – that the tundra will warm up, and this methane will be released causing a runaway greenhouse effect …

    And given that switching to natural gas has reduced the evil CO2, environmentalists should WANT that gas accessed.

    Neat little catch-22 for them.

    There is even easier deposits… The ocean’s floor is covered with Methane-clathrate. Mostly along the ridges of the continental shelves… Remember that at one time, the earth’s atmosphere was 100% methane. Where did all that gas go? Into Methane Hydrates on the ocean floor.

    There is enough out there to power the world for centuries.

    • #53
  24. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    It’s quite possible that some years down the road we will be able to grow more while using substantially less fertilizer, by developing better seeds through genetic engineering.  The catch is that the people who decry modern farming methods like chemical fertilizer are highly unlikely to support genetic engineering of crops.  I’m always disappointed when I see something in the grocery store that says GMO-free.  I want to buy something the proudly advertises that it’s a better product thanks to genetic engineering.

    • #54
  25. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    MarciN (View Comment):

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):
    Microorganisms would not be a substitute for commercial fertilizer.

    But perhaps in addition to reduced application of nitrogen and phosphorus?

    I wouldn’t have believed it would work, but we had our garden treated last year with microorganisms in addition to our normal light application of fertilizer, and I can’t believe the excellent results.

    I’m just wondering if our brilliant American farmers will figure something out to make up for the ridiculous new laws the governments are thinking of passing.

     

    Modern fertilizer use has meant the difference between feeding the world and subsistence farming.  Farmers don’t buy bags of fertilizer and spread it around willy nilly.  There is not an acre of farmland that isn’t under some sort of management by agronomists.  Whether a large farm or small, farmers send soil samples for analysis and apply fertilizer, micronutrients, organic matter (i.e., manure) and, yes, microorganisms accordingly.  A farmer’s acreage and soil information is uploaded to the cloud, and equipment can apply fertilizers and other things with literally pinpoint precision.

    As for farmers figuring out something, that is something they do all the time.  

     

    • #55
  26. ToryWarWriter Coolidge
    ToryWarWriter
    @ToryWarWriter

    Hes going up against the most vicsious and dangerous people in the entire country with this reckless plan.

     

    The Dairy Farmers.  

     

    You think Im joking but these people strike terror in the hearts of all good and god fearing people.  The cartel is crazy powerful.  

     

    No one can stand up to the cow in Canada.

    Big Moo!

    • #56
  27. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    ToryWarWriter (View Comment):

    Hes going up against the most vicsious and dangerous people in the entire country with this reckless plan.

     

    The Dairy Farmers.

     

    You think Im joking but these people strike terror in the hearts of all good and god fearing people. The cartel is crazy powerful.

     

    No one can stand up to the cow in Canada.

    Big Moo!

    Hope so

    • #57
  28. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    MarciN (View Comment):

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):
    Microorganisms would not be a substitute for commercial fertilizer.

    But perhaps in addition to reduced application of nitrogen and phosphorus?

    I wouldn’t have believed it would work, but we had our garden treated last year with microorganisms in addition to our normal light application of fertilizer, and I can’t believe the excellent results.

    I’m just wondering if our brilliant American farmers will figure something out to make up for the ridiculous new laws the governments are thinking of passing.

     

    Hobby garden? 

    • #58
  29. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    MarciN (View Comment):

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):
    Microorganisms would not be a substitute for commercial fertilizer.

    But perhaps in addition to reduced application of nitrogen and phosphorus?

    I wouldn’t have believed it would work, but we had our garden treated last year with microorganisms in addition to our normal light application of fertilizer, and I can’t believe the excellent results.

    I’m just wondering if our brilliant American farmers will figure something out to make up for the ridiculous new laws the governments are thinking of passing.

     

    Hobby garden?

    “I can see the day coming when even your home garden is against the law.” – Bob Dylan, “Union Sundown”

    • #59
  30. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    MarciN (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    MarciN (View Comment):

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):
    Microorganisms would not be a substitute for commercial fertilizer.

    But perhaps in addition to reduced application of nitrogen and phosphorus?

    I wouldn’t have believed it would work, but we had our garden treated last year with microorganisms in addition to our normal light application of fertilizer, and I can’t believe the excellent results.

    I’m just wondering if our brilliant American farmers will figure something out to make up for the ridiculous new laws the governments are thinking of passing.

     

    Maybe. But first, we need to get rid of the ridiculous laws that our governments are passing.

    These people are not stupid, so the only explanation is the desire for mass starvation.

    I agree with you.

    I disagree.  They ARE stupid.

     

    • #60
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