Canadian food production growing sustainably.Ottawa—The federal government must stop looking to the European Union's agriculture policies as a model for controlling carbon emissions, says Stuart J. Smyth, Professor & Agri-Food Innovation and Sustainability Enhancement Chair at the University of Saskatchewan.Rather than the ideologically driven, counterproductive European approach, Canada should keep developing its science and outcome-driven policies to promote a strong, sustainable agricultural sector, Smyth said in an article published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.The evidence to date confirms Canadian agricultural production is increasingly sustainable, he said. The government must learn the right lessons from Europe's mistakes when adopting strategies for reducing agriculture emissions and improving sustainability through innovation. “Canada should not follow Europe's failed attempts to reduce emissions by producing less food,” he said. “Crop breeding, more efficient fertilizer and chemical use and investments in farming equipment and technology offer tried and true strategies for increasing production while enhancing sustainability and reducing GHG emissions.”EU policies that dramatically reduce fertilizer and chemical use and ban modern crop breeding technologies are not going to help supply the world's growing demand for food.“Governments constantly encourage innovation and enact policies to incentivize investment into the research and development required to bring new products and processes to market.”Canadian agriculture is at the forefront of sustainable innovation that maximizes efficiency and produces more pounds of crop per acre of land for each pound of seed, fertilizer and pesticides applied, Smyth said.Since 1960, global food production has increased by 390 per cent while using only 10 per cent more land. “Innovations in crop breeding technologies such as GM crops, fertilizer and chemical use and farm industrialization have all contributed to this increasingly sustainable food production.”Although the global agricultural sector is a significant source of greenhouse gases, total emissions have remained flat since 2000 even as production increased, and the sector's share of global emissions has declined.“Despite this incredible success story, modern agriculture is often viewed with suspicion, particularly in the European Union. They have incorporated precaution-based regulations which dramatically reduce fertilizer and chemical use and ban modern crop breeding technologies. Presently they are proposing to triple organic production, from 8 per cent of current land to 25 per cent by 2030, as part of what's known as their 'Farm to Fork' strategy to reduce agricultural GHG emissions.”Inevitably, the strategy will not necessarily reduce emissions but will certainly reduce production, Smyth said. The production decreases “will contribute to even higher food prices in the EU, which has been experiencing double digit inflation increases for most of the past year.“By contrast, Canada allows all plant breeding technologies to be used in the development of new varieties, and fertilizer and chemical use is based upon risk appropriate, science-based regulations. The benefits of this approach are unambiguous.”Comparing sustainable agricultural production between the EU and Canada reveals two very different situations. The EU has rejected GM crops due to politics and precaution and as a result still heavily relies on tillage. Canadian farmers have enthusiastically adopted GM crops, virtually eliminating tillage. The EU is proposing additional precaution-based regulations that will further reduce crop and food production. Canadian farmers have demonstrated the ability to produce more food with fewer inputs, while the EU is poised to produce less, with more land requirements.