COP28 Climate Talks Set to Discuss Food and Agriculture
SASKATOON, SK—United Nations COP28 climate negotiations are underway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). For the first time at a COP climate meeting, agriculture is a major focus. As part of that focus, Sunday, December 10 is designated “Food, Agriculture, and Water Day.”
Canada’s National Farmers Union (NFU) is very concerned with the ongoing approach at UN COP meetings, including COP28.
Although the NFU welcomes the focus on supporting farmers and others to reduce emissions from food systems and strengthen adaptation, at the same time it is provocative that, with global fossil fuel emissions near a record high, and with COP28 in the petro-state UAE and thronged with fossil-fuel lobbyists, a major focus is on agriculture and food rather than reducing fossil fuel use. While we must work hard to reduce emissions from food systems, we must not let this diminish our focus on fossil fuels. Fossil fuel use is the primary cause of the climate crisis and must always remain the main focus of COP negotiations.
A second problem with these and previous COP negotiations is the focus on false solutions such as biofuels, carbon offsets and emissions trading, and corporate pretensions toward net zero. False solutions such as offsets are just GHG accounting loopholes—reductions on paper only.
A third problem is the lack of ambition: tweaking, even entrenching, business-as-usual rather than pursuing the transformative approaches needed to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. An example of this lack of ambition is the December 1 COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action which contains nice language but is vague, with little mention of the need to cut fossil fuel use in the food system and elsewhere.
In contrast to the half-measures and false solutions dominating COP28, real, effective solutions exist. The NFU believes that solutions must be ambitious and transformative. We must embrace new approaches to Canadian agriculture, such as agroecology (agroecosystems modeled on the most productive and sustainable natural ecosystems) and Food Sovereignty (food systems democratically controlled by citizens and operating in their long-term interests).
Thorsten Arnold, an NFU member who farms near Owen Sound, Ontario, commented that “current food and agricultural systems are often driven by short-term profit, controlled by corporations, misdirected by false climate solutions and greenwashing, and focused on pushing up output and attendant fertilizer and chemical use. Current systems are not compatible with a net-zero, biodiverse world. In their place, we need policies and programs that support farmers to align with planetary boundaries. We need to change course. Doing so will be hard, at times, but also deeply rewarding. In contrast, the consequences of business-as-usual will be devastating.”
Arnold added: “In addition to being transformative and ambitious, our plans must be holistic—we must solve many problems at once: regenerating soils; curbing farmland concentration and creating pathways for young and new farmers to access land; sustainably integrating crop and livestock systems; and creating food systems that advance health, justice, equity, and reconciliation. The land is not just a source of profits or emissions: it is a source of life and human flourishing. Rather than reductionist thinking, we need holistic solutions such as those in the NFU’s report, Tackling the Farm Crisis and the Climate Crisis.”
Ann Slater, NFU former Vice-President who farms near St. Marys, Ontario, stated that “the NFU and allied farmer and peasant organizations around the world have developed and articulated the solutions we need. The problem is that UN COP talks, dominated by corporate interests and distracted by false solutions, function to further entrench the status quo. Instead, we need location-specific land management, multilateral knowledge sharing, strong communities, democratic controls, and awareness of and respect for planetary limits. We need systemic and society-wide change and solidarity among farmers, peasants, Indigenous peoples, workers, consumers, policymakers, and all food-system actors.”
For more than two decades, the farmer-led NFU has been a leader in providing climate and emissions policy solutions. NFU work has included the landmark 2019 study, Tackling the Farm Crisis and the Climate Crisis; collaborating to create the coalition Farmers for Climate Solutions; working internationally through the Via Campesina; contributing to the development of the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) program, creating detailed analyses of agricultural emissions; and participating in ongoing talks toward a Sustainable Agriculture Strategy. NFU members are deeply engaged in finding solutions (e.g., the NFU’s 2021 report, Imagine If… A Vision of a Near-Zero-Emission Farm and Food System for Canada).
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For more information:
Ann Slater, NFU former VP & St. Mary’s-area farmer (519) 349-2448 aslater@quadro.net
Thorsten Arnold, NFU member & Owen-Sound-area farmer, thorsten.r.arnold@gmail.com
Darrin Qualman, Director of Climate Crisis Policy & Action (306) 230-9115 qualman@nfu.ca
