Farmers flock to emissions-reduction program despite right-wing conspiracy campaign

For over a year, Manitoba farmers Craig and Zoë Bailey have been rotating between the bits of pasture where they let their sheep graze, in an effort to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. 

Unlike traditional shepherding methods that allow herds to roam through vast pastures at will, the couple put up wooden fences to fragment their field into 10 smaller pens and move the animals between them about once a week. The practice ensures that no part of the field gets overgrazed, keeping the grass and soil ecosystem healthy. 

Healthy soils and grasslands suck climate-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequester it in the ground, helping fight climate change. 

The approach has been a "gamechanger" for the Baileys because the permanent fences reduce how much time they need to spend moving sheep around — the couple previously used mobile electric fences — and has made their pasture much healthier. 

But they wouldn’t have been able to afford to run the experiment without a federal grant to help farmers fight climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

The federal program, first announced in 2021, has been hugely popular.  According to documents obtained by Canada's National Observer through an access to information request, demand for the $704-million program has been high enough that federal officials extended it beyond its planned 2024 end date.

In Manitoba and Saskatchewan alone, almost 2,000 farmers received support from the program last year. 

"I've never met a farmer that doesn't want to do better on their land and leave it in a better shape for future generations," said Lynda Nicol, executive director of the Manitoba Association of Watersheds. The organization is one of 13 groups that disburse the federal funds to farmers. 

The program provides a financial safety net that allows farmers to try new types of fertilizers or techniques, like cover cropping and rotational grazing, without the risk of losing money and going out of business, Nicol explained. 

"We are hearing from producers that they want to keep maintaining [the new practices] and work towards permanence and the adoption of the practice, which is the goal of the program," she said. The Baileys echoed her observations, saying that many of their neighbours or farming friends were aware of the program, and about half were using the funds for a host of different carbon-reducing projects. 

That success stands in sharp contrast to years of harsh criticism from farmers, online commentators and conservative politicians toward a similar push by the federal government to help farmers reduce emissions from nitrogen fertilizers. Overusing the fertilizers generates nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, and accounts for about a fifth of agricultural emissions. 

That proposal — a voluntary target to reduce nitrogen fertilizer emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 — was widely misrepresented by right-wing commentators as a nitrogen fertilizer "ban." In reality, the target aimed to help farmers use fertilizers more efficiently, reducing emissions and costs. Within weeks, the false narrative of a ban had been woven into right-wing conspiracy theories and was being widely shared online. 

The false framing tapped into a common concern among farmers that climate change will lead to more restrictive policies or regulations. For climate policies to get widespread support, government officials need to work closely with farmers and communicate climate policies as early and accurately as possible, said Brent Preston, president of Farmers for Climate Solutions. 

Opposition to the fertilizer emissions reduction target became so prominent because it "was seen as completely arbitrary, and in that vacuum of information, there were actors who spread misinformation to whip up opposition," he explained. "Opposition toward that target has declined as producers realize that the sky isn't falling [and] it is absolutely achievable."

Nicol said she's seen similar dynamics at play in her work promoting sustainable farming practices. Many of the farmers she works with are wary of policies that might insinuate they aren't properly caring for their land.  

"[Broad] policies at times can feel more blanketed, but when  it comes to the individual programs that actually help farmers make positive changes on their land, we've heard nothing but positives," she said.