Western Canadian farmers have made more environmental progress than those in Central Canada.   Ottawa—With sustainability gaining growing importance among grocery shoppers around the world, Canada needs to be able to demonstrate its farms are reducing their negative environmental impacts. The latest research paper from the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI) shows agriculture is moving in the right direction but that conclusion is based on data collected between 1981 and 2011. For that period, farming had a $4.3 billion negative environmental impact while the value of total agricultural production increased from $7.5 billion to $16.2 billion, the report said. Since then, Canadian agriculture has become more efficient and productive while reducing its overall greenhouse gas emissions, the report said. Tristan Skolurd, the main author of the report, said the impact assessment would look even better with a complete accounting of the positives actions Canadian farmers have taken. “More work needs to be done on benefits of carbon sequestration and wetlands. It is important to get this message out to the general public to offset agriculture's perceived bad rap so we will need to continue to refine these estimates.” Between 1981 and 2011, improvements in soil conservation and tillage and farm management led to a 23 per cent reduction in negative environmental impacts, he said. Since then more improvements have been made in agricultural production practices, he said. Agriculture Canada is gleaning additional information from its 2016 Agri-Environmental Indicators Report and it could be available by next year. Because of the incomplete data and a lack of time, Skolurd and his research team developed few potential policy measures to reduce the environmental impact of food production. To do so would require more analysis in other areas, he said. Bits and pieces of this work have been done in recent CAPI reports as well as an extensive analysis of the topic by members of the Canadian Agriculture Economics Society. “So, this is an area for further study which CAPI will continue to keep an eye on and pursue.” The report said its findings should be viewed as preliminary estimates of agriculture's environmental impacts rather than a definitive account. Still to be determined is the cost of tackling each of the environmental impacts. But even with the incomplete data, the new report “represents a great first attempt at developing a methodology and finding the metrics to produce estimates for the value of Canadian externalities from agriculture,” said CAPI President Don Buckingham. On the Prairies, the negative impacts of agriculture on the environment fell by 34 per cent between 1981 and 2011, from $7.8 billion to $5.1 billion, primarily due to reduced GHG emissions, particulate matter pollution and soil erosion. In Ontario and Quebec, the negative impacts worsened due to increased water pollution from nitrogen, phosphorous and pesticide use. The improved environmental performance is due to new farm management practices such as no-till and 4R stewardship in crop production and new livestock genetics and feed efficiencies in beef and dairy production. The report noted that while Canada can “a growing quantity of agricultural and food products year after year, there are concerns over whether we are doing so in a sustainable fashion. “Agricultural production that is not sustainable will have impacts on the environment far into the future, such as from air and water pollution, soil erosion and loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitat. It can also impact human health. “Future generations will be impacted if the growth in agricultural production today comes at the cost of future environmental degradation and natural capital loss in Canada.” Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.