Fertilizer Canada

The goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer use by 30 per cent kicked up more dust than a tractor on a grid road when it was first announced by the federal Liberal government last summer.

A new industry-led report suggests Canada’s farmers can likely only achieve half of the federal government’s targeted 30 per cent reduction in fertilizer emissions by 2030.

Time will tell whether they get around to dumping actual manure onto major highways in protest, or whether we’ll merely have to contend with the metaphorical version being thrown at our federal government, writes columnist Max Fawcett.

For Canadian agriculture to meet its 30 per cent fertilizer emissions reduction target by 2030, it is critical to reduce the overall amount of nitrogen fertilizer used in Canada.

Environmentalists are warning that slow-release nitrogen fertilizers, central to Canada's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on farms, are filling fields with microscopic plastic pollution.