Program Agenda

Funded by the George Weston Ltd. Seeding Food Innovation Grant

Organizer: Debra Davidson, University of Alberta

• Space is limited. Email contact@caes-scae.ca to register your interest in participating.

Participants will learn about the findings of an extensive social scientific research project exploring opportunities and barriers to climate change mitigation on Canadian farms. The project focused on beef and grain producers in Alberta, but the findings have broader implications for other Canadian regions and agricultural sectors. Participants will then engage in knowledge-sharing discussions intended to identify ways to integrate the findings from this and other research projects on farmer behaviour into policy, and prioritize future directions for research, and science-policy relations.

Includes conference packet pick-up

Peter Boxall, University of Alberta, CAES Past-President

Sponsored by Smart Prosperity Institute

Chair: Peter Boxall, University of Alberta
Speaker: Dr. Kent Messer, University of Delaware

Since 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has funded a national Center of Excellence to promote the application of behavioral and experimental economics to the country’s agri-environmental programs. As co-director of this Center, Dr. Kent Messer will discuss how investments in this type of research can lead to the discovery of cost-effective improvements that can be incorporated into a wide array of government policy. He will also discuss the challenges that have been encountered and the lessons learned from the U.S. experience.

Sponsored by Ontario Agriculture College, University of Guelph

Sponsored by the George Weston Ltd. Seeding Food Innovation Grant

Organizer and Chair:  Debra Davidson, University of Alberta
Speakers: Getu Hailu, University of Guelph; Christopher Bryant, University of Guelph – Retired; Kelly Bronson, University of Ottawa; Julia Baird, Brock University

Canadian agricultural producers have a significant degree of influence over policy agenda-setting, and implementation. As a group, however, farmers are highly diverse, not only in their operations, but in their values, beliefs, priorities and practices, ensuring that ‘one size fits all’ policy strategies will enjoy limited success. In this session, social scientists from multiple disciplines will offer a more nuanced understanding of farmers as complex agents, and how accommodating this complexity can lead to more effective policymaking.

Sponsored by the Solomon Sinclair Farm Management Institute and the McCain Family Chair in Food Security

Chair: Brady Deaton, University of Guelph, CAES President
Speakers: Alfons Weersink, University of Guelph; Paul Thorogood, DUC; Lara Ellis, ALUS

This session will briefly introduce the major policy and program approaches to incenting the adoption of beneficial management practices at the farm level in Canada. The discussion will focus on cost share approaches, community engagement, and fixed payments for targeted environmental improvements.

Sponsored by Ontario Agriculture College, University of Guelph

Sponsored by Ducks Unlimited Canada

Organizer and Chair: Pat Kehoe, Ducks Unlimited Canada
Speakers: John Thompson, Watrecon Consulting; Dave Poulton, Poulton Environmental Strategies Inc; Dr. Shari Clare, Fiera Consulting
Discussion Facilitator: Greg Thompson, Thompson and Mortimer Consulting Inc.

Canada’s wetlands represent 25% of the globe’s total wetland resources and annually generate over $25 billion dollars in benefits including: clean water, flood mitigation, soil moisture, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. However, the rate of wetland loss has reached 90% in some of the settled areas of the country. Policy solutions for the protection, conservation and responsible management of Canada wetlands remain a persistent biodiversity and landscape management challenge. This Session will focus on three key areas: 1) The major factors enabling wetland losses today, 2) The effectiveness of policies, programs and incentives in avoiding, mitigating and offsetting wetland loss, and 3) Landscape-level solutions that balance wetland conservation, protection and management with the operating needs of Canadian agricultural producers.

Annual Agri-Food Policy Poster Competition

Researchers are invited to prepare posters around the theme of “Agri-Environmental Policy and Programs”. The top presenter will win a trip to the 2019 CAES Annual Meeting in Ottawa from July 9-12, 2019.

Competition sponsored by The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute

Sponsored by the Institute for the Advanced Study of Food and Agricultural Policy

Chair: Brady Deaton, University of Guelph, CAES President
Speaker: Chad Lawley, University of Manitoba

Identifying causal impacts of agri-environmental programs requires an understanding of what would have occurred in the absence of the programs. This talk will discuss several approaches to constructing these counterfactuals, drawing on prior evaluations of conservation programs in Canada and the US. Agri-environmental policy should draw from well-designed studies based on credible counterfactual models. Opportunities for future evaluations of Canadian agri-environmental programs will be explored.

Sponsored by Ontario Agriculture College, University of Guelph

Sponsored by the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics

Chair: Peter Boxall, University of Alberta, CAES Past-President
Speaker: Marian Weber, InnoTech Alberta
Discussant: Ken Belcher, University of Saskatchewan

Natural capital accounts provide indicators of the extent and value of natural assets that contribute to the economy, and in theory can inform decision makers whether natural assets are being managed efficiently and sustainably.  Natural capital accounts are of interest at corporate, sub-national, national, and international levels. However, with limited resources these accounts are unlikely to be developed by provincial or national statistical agencies unless there is demonstrated utility from measuring and monitoring natural capital. This session explores the demand for and feasibility of creating agricultural land accounts, and policy relevant questions and end uses that could be feasibly tested through pilot projects.

Kara Beckles, CAES President-Elect