A Team Canada approach to agrifood prosperity is needed.   Ottawa—In the face of climate change and rising global food demand, the future prosperity of Canadian agriculture lies with fully adopting sustainable farming practices, says the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI). After a year and a half of studies, webinars and discussions, CAPI has released its Creating Prosperity from Chaos report with a series of recommendations and observations on the future direction of farming and food production. Sustainable intensification of food production is essential for future economic growth and food security, it says. “Sustainable agrifood supply chains are essential for resilience of all sector participants and domestic food security.” Challenges to food production loom large through climate change and animal and plant disease risks while food processing “will require the right business conditions to attract investments and the right sustainability standards and metrics, the report said. “The Canadian agrifood system has great potential and the capacity to contribute to sustainable food production, global food security and climate change solutions while improving its competitive advantage.” The first step is make better use of multidisciplinary knowledge to find solutions to the problems and challenges the agrifood system encounters. “Canada's past successes could be repeated for the high value products with characteristics demanded by markets,” the report said. “Rule-based trade is essential to growth of sustainable production and food security.” CAPI set out four key measures the sector needs to move forward. They are getting the federal and provincial governments, farmers, processors and academia “to recognize the agrifood system as an interconnected system that requires systems approaches to investments, strategies and policies in order to maximize environmental, social and economic outcomes.” The significant competitive advantage of Canadian agrifood “is not being leveraged to maximize outcomes. Strategies need to be developed to leverage the assets the agrifood system has today and the advantages it will have in 20-30 years.” Climate change policies need to take into account Canadian agriculture's unique advantages in terms of its environmental competitiveness and its potential role in providing climate change solutions and becoming a reliable and sustainable food producer, the report said. “However, instead of delivering true national action on climate change, federal and provincial governments and the agrifood system have often worked at cross purposes.” Governments need to embrace agriculture's critical role as a nature-based climate solution and reward farmers for the actions they take to reduce emissions and sequester carbon as well as protecting the soil, water and biodiversity “that is critical to the natural capital that gives Canada a comparative advantage.” It's possible that in the next 30 to 50 years, new technologies may change the role of soil-based agriculture, the report said. “In the meantime, 9.7 billion people will need to be fed, and fed at a time when major food-producing regions are being impacted by climate change. Continued productivity growth is a necessity for the global agrifood system. However, it must be done in a way that allows us to produce more and better with less.” 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.