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Regional Consultations

Ontario Regional Science Consultations - October 27, 2005

Participant responses to Consultation questions

Question 1: Vision for the agriculture and agri-food sector

What do you think the agriculture and agri-food section in your region needs to do over the next 10-15 years to achieve sustainable profitability and growth?

What are the key drivers of change?

On-farm concerns

• Aging farm population
• Lack of interest in farming from next-generation - no succession plan (sons not encouraged to enter farming business)
• Fewer larger farms - bigger farms are no longer necessarily better
• Urban sprawl - pressure on rural areas

Profitability/Economics

• Profit issues and enjoyment of farming
• High energy costs - need for alternative energy sources and conservation
• High labour costs
• Cow/calf price takers (no control over pricing)
• Decreasing equity in farms
• We are not least cost producers - low cost competitors and shift of investment to other countries

Demands from citizen and consumers

• Societal issues regarding future of agriculture in Canada
• Citizen demands for environmentally responsible agriculture
• Interest in traceability options in agriculture
• Changing consumer preferences and demographics - Aging consumer population resulting in changes in consumer preference
• Need for consumer information to identify high-quality foods - consumer preferences in healthy food and neutraceuticals
• Consumer preferences (needs) for longer shelf life of products

Research

• Education of consumers on acceptance of technology (AAFC & industry)
• Lack of research in sheep
• Forming of respective alliances in science
• Location of research services is being centralized versus being in regions
• Need to focus on value-added research - NOT production research (still require basic production research)
• Need for research to determine economic impact analysis in regards to trade issues
• Need for market-driven research
• Need to ensure that research efforts are better coordinated through research database update etc. (ie. ICAR)
• Need for surveillance for foreign threats (invasive alien species, animal diseases)
• Need for new crops that can be produced economically

Political issues

• Global trade
• Border and trade issues ( USA)
• Legislation such as Greenbelt seen as anti-agriculture
• Trade agreements (WTO) - political decisions
• Issues regarding access to markets (barriers/tariffs) etc.

Other

• Seasonality of horticultural crops
• Need for higher value-added innovative crop production
• Rural poverty issue
• New markets including organic and ethnic foods
• Increased concern over animal health issues (disease)
• Aging facilities
• More money needed in fixed asset costs

What are the principal challenges?

Production and processing concerns

• Food safety issues
• Sustainable markets for new products
• Finding new market opportunities
• Processing infrastructure currently based on traditional commodities
• Need to maintain a competitive agricultural industry in Canada
• Risks from foreign pests (invasive alien species)
• Low cost of food in Canada
• Deep pockets needed to commercialize new products
• Environmental issues

Profitability/economics

• Increasing Canadian dollar against USA
• Access to capital
• Ensuring money returns to producers in value-added products, etc.

Citizen/consumer challenges

• Educating consumers on agricultural production
• Educating the consumer on the value of the agri-food industry in Canada
• Food safety and food quality concerns by consumers

Research

• Spending research dollars on "bricks" versus on research equipment
• Target research activities
• Align research activities to meet regional needs
• How do you measure the value of science in research (ie. does research benefit the producer or someone else?)
• Don't know what work is being conducted in other countries

Policy/ Regulatory

• Border issues (inspection, labelling requirements, etc)
• Political imperative - maintain research centres and research dollars in all provinces
• Need for good science for policy, regulation, etc.
• Canada's regulatory systems
• American products coming to Canada
• Questionable products from countries with lower standards (ie. pesticide residue)
• Finding a level playing field regarding pesticide applications for products such as organic (acceptance of regulations for organic foods)

What are the principal opportunities?

Production

• High valued crops

Profitability/Economics

• New markets for specialized products
• Strategic deployment of resources
• Expand sales (with fair price to primary producer)
• Niche markets
• Enhanced collaboration led by industry (re-alignment of common goods/interests)
• Fruit and vegetable sector focus (eg 80% of Canadian fruit and vegetable produced in Ontario)
• USA/Mexico markets

Citizen/Consumer

• Development of healthy foods
• Development of healthy animals and animal products
• Development of healthy environment
• Health and nutrition

Policy/ Regulatory

• Create new government policies that help agriculture instead of hindering it
• Develop better regulatory support (implement smart regulations as is, immediately)

Research

• Develop alternative energy sources
• Within each commodity to develop new products (omega 3 eggs, improvements to meat products and milk, organic animal production)
• Innovation value chain enhancement/collaboration
• Greenhouse industry is a good model (greenhouse brightest light in research now)
• Grassroots research (conducting research at producer locations)
• Research to assist in developing new markets (ie extending shelf life in fresh-cut fruit)

Question 2: Ongoing regional consultation

In establishing an ongoing Agriculture and Agri-Food section regional consultation mechanism, what is your advice as to how this could best be accomplished in a way that identifies regional research priorities of greatest benefit to the sector?

Who should be engaged in ongoing regional consultations?

• Provincial/extension staff
• Universities and colleges
• Municipalities
• Private industry
• Farmers
• Use existing groups (province/industry)
• OASCC (Ontario Agricultural Services Coodinating Committees) BUT this system needs to be strengthened through better leadership
• Innovators
• Commodity groups

How should this consultation be done?

• Two-way dialogue between researchers and industry
• Face to face meeting
• Use video/teleconference
• Use existing mechanisms (ie. OASCC)
• Field days
• Research centre tours
• Advisory boards
• Focus group on solutions
• Systematic vs random process

How often should consultations be held?

• One opinion - no more often than 5 ears - no less often than 10 years
• Another opinion - annually

How should consultation advice be channelled to the Department?

• To those with authority to make decisions
• Deliver challenges AND possible solutions
• To specific AAFC research centres (Research Managers) for regional needs
• Science Directors if necessary (ie. in relation to specific programs and national needs)

Identification of Research Needs

MCA 1 - Bioresources

Bio-agro processes and products

Biosecurity

Research on bioresources:

• Fungal collections
• Insect collections

Soil-type database

• Alignment with other areas such as forest soil
• Improve precision
• NLWIS - online database
• Information on soils for planning, precision agriculture

Gene-Resource Banks

• Support biodiversity
• Access to genes of interest for industry
• Improved access to database
• Reasonably accessible

Biosecurity

• Avoidance and control of invasive threats - diseases, insects, etc.
• (Avoid duplication - collaborate with others internationally and within Canada including other ministries (Environment))
• Partners in biosecure labs - such as level 3 being developed in Ontario

Water Resources

• Collaboration with Environment Public Health (federal and provincial)
• AAFC roles - focus on agricultural issues such as nutrients and pesticide issues

Regulatory System - AAFC's role

• Evaluating regulatory policies that impact economic opportunities
• Work to support regulatory policies - Support to move things forward with regulation of new technologies (eg. AAFC and PMRA)
• Researching regulatory inefficiencies in new developments and areas for improving process
• Act as a support for research entrepreneurs in commercialization
• Determine necessity and ways to deal with conflicting regulations

MCA 2 - Crop Production and Health

• Research to develop a healthy agronomic system
• Need research tools and then the knowledge on how to implement Best Production Practices
• Need political assistance to make regulatory system work along with new production practices
• Research to deal with production problems before they arise
• Money needed to allow for obtaining information from other countries
• Breeding work in floriculture
• Crop breeding for production
• National standards for organic agriculture should determine the research needs in this area
• Work in crop protection (IPM delivery systems, reduced-risk products) - more effort in this area is required
• Research partnerships with CFIA (invasive pests and diagnostics)
• Applied research is needed (this is decreasing and needs to be supported)
• Production and protection work is important to industry and needs to be supported
• Research can only be done if key positions are supported (crop production/protection - vacant positions in Ontario)

MCA 3 - Animal Production and heath

• Animal breeding (to produce a "Canada" brand animal and meat products)
• Bio-security and hygiene research
• Research into diagnostic tests (improve sensitivity to avoid false positives)
• Research on antibiotics, vaccine, therapeutic drugs
• Research on antimicrobial peptide to replace antibiotics
• Research to look at production methods (organic animal production)
• Genomic work (gene specific production, traits, genetic markers for disease resistance)
• Research to update nutritional requirements (milk production to improve quality)
• Stress management research (communication updates on research initiative to consumers)

MCA 4 - Environmentally sound crop

Soil ecology (includes soil fauna, soil microbes, mechanisms, processes, etc.)

• Plant breeding to improve environmental performance (ie. reduced need for nitrogen, drought tolerance, resistance to weeds/diseases, etc.)
• Research on nutrient needs in the vegetable and fruit area (for nutrient management planning)
• Research into organic agriculture
• Research into drainage and irrigation practices
• More efficient use of manures, composting and biosolids
• Risk assessment research for municipal well heads
• Research on renewable fuels to reduce fossil fuels and greenhouse gas production
• Research on economic value and performance of Best Management Practices for the environment
• Research on transport and fate of organic/inorganic inputs (soil/water)
• Research into lower input practices
• Research to develop national environmental protocols (standard setting for contaminants)

MCA 5 - Environmentally sound animal production

Carcass and manure utilization

• Need to study the economics of digesters and power production
• Need to make information available with respect to composting (what has been done?)
• Develop a strategy for disposing of large numbers of carcasses in the event of an epidemic especially if they are large animal carcasses
• There is a need for someone to update and maintain the Advanced Manure Management Technologies of Ontario (AMMTO) website
• Are there human biosoild strategies that have cross-applications for livestock in both disposal and utilization?

Technology Transfer

• Need to continue to encourage researchers to publish, but need to provide them with incentive to meet fact-to-face with producers to establish priorities and do technology transfer so that we have world-class expertise in the process
• Need less pressure to patent discoveries where the market potential is limited
• Need to focus on on-farm demonstration with industry leaders where possible and link food safety and environmental implications

Collaborative research

• Need to promote world-class research and technology transfer and this may require researcher salaries to be co-funded
• Need to seek out international collaborative research and conferences to build world-class research and technology transfer

MCA 6 - Food safety

Pursue health claim opportunities

• Adopt a system that will allow health claims to be promoted based on available published research
• Labelling of food products needs to include country of origin in processed products
• Diagnostic services need to be available for pre-emptive sampling on primary and processed products to proactively identify food safety issues
• Farmers need access to fast turn-around diagnostics so that quarantineable pests and diseases are not sent to competing countries for diagnosis
• Pathology research needs to be a priority to prevent pathogens existing on fruit and vegetables from becoming a food safety problem
• There is a need to establish a water quality database to identify priority farmland locations

MCA 7 - Food quality

• Post-harvest research (packaging, processing)
• Improved fibre and protein content in food (to improve human health)
• Collaboration is important in regards to pooling facilities, resources (AAFC, universities, industry)
• Research into continuum of production by building quality into crop in the field and maintaining quality throughout the value chain
• Research supported by Health Department funding to look at health benefits
• AAFC must partner in any health benefit research done by AAFC or others
• Lack of good data on crop quality in the field

MCA 8 - Bioproducts

Forestation and agroforestry research

• under-used agricultural land in northern Ontario
• alterative energy sources
• better use of carbon-hydrogen bond
• ethanol, biodiesel - current initiative
• look for other opportunities to replace petroleum in other industrial products
• co / by-products utilization - glycerol (biodiesel)
• AAFC involved but not necessarily the lead
• Fibre developments (research into replacing traditional fibre products with agricultural products)
• Creating crops with unique quality profiles - unique oil profiles
• Bio-hydrogen - long term demand could evolve

Food Production

• contamination detection technology
• focus on consumer benefit
• indicators technology - (eg. Changing seed coat colour to indicate problems)

Link with those industries that don't currently work with agriculture (ie auto sector)

Energy Bioproducts

• overall good
• position agriculture to become a net energy supplier rather than a net energy user

Matching Investment Initiative - Bring it back

Agricultural pilot plants for bioproducts