Module 6: Agri-Environmental Policy Flashcards
(31 cards)
Thomas Malthus’s Theory of Population Growth
The human population grows exponentially while food supply grows arithmetically (linear)
The development, intensification and extensification of agriculture is also associated with concerns over which 3 things related to resources?
- allocation
- efficiency
- equity
What are the two reasons the remaining non-agricultural land is mostly marginal?
- Economically: the cost of production > revenue (high transportation costs)
- Physically: Physical limitation to agricultural productivity (soil texture, arid, topography, etc)
What is decreasing the stock of productive agricultural lands?
Ongoing land urbanization and land degradation
The FAO predicts that by 2050, we will require:
- __% increases in cereals?
- __% increasen in meat production
- 50% increase in cereal productions
- 75-100% increase in meat production
With agricultural expansion, more marginal and fragile lands have been converted to more intensive production, leading to increased..?
- leads to increased erosion, deforestation, and loss of wildlife habitat
Define Ecosystem Goods & Services
The benefits provided by ecosystems to hymans that encompass the 4 broad areas
What are the 4 broad regulating areas of ecosystem goods and services?
- Provisioning services: food, fibre, wood, fuel, and water
- Regulating services: climate regulation, flood regulation, water quality, disease regulation; maintain balance of ecosystems to enable human survival
- Cultural services: spiritual, inspirational, aesthetic, heritage, recreational and tourism benefits
- Supporting Services: range of natural ecosystems that enable the previous three - organic matter cycling contributes to soil creation, photosynthesis transforming solar energy to plant matter, carbon cycling
Land management decisions made within agricultural landscapes are driven by what economic incentives
- profitability of production systems
- risk preferences of the manager
- policy signals: commodity, management, inputs
Other then economic incentives, what drives land management decisions
General preferences and characteristics like:
- management skills: experience and education
- Planning: age and succession plan
- Information: technical, marketing and distribution networks
What is the primary reason for agri-environmental policy?
for producers to either:
- decrease the negative impacts of management
- increase the positive impacts of management
Policies aimed at providing environmental benefits are separated into which three categories?
- Command and control measures
- regulatory requirements
- cross-compliance - Economic instruments
- payments
- environmental taxes/charges
- Tradable rights - Advisory and institutional measures
- research and development
- Technical assistance/extension
- labelling/standards/certification
- community based measures
What can the government do to enforce command and controls for agri-environmental policy?
- restrictions and regulations
- fines and/or withdrawal of financial support
Describe The Environmental Protection Act, 2010
- is it used in agriculture?
- can you be subject to repairing damages?
- Restricts the discharge of a substance into the environment at a rate that can cause an adverse effect (minister can issue protection order)
- Restricts the alteration of bed, bank or boundary of any river, stream, lake, creek, marsh or other water body that is not wholly within its boundaries of a landowner.
- subject to repairing damages, paying for damage to other parties, fines not exceeding $1M to imprisonment not exceeding 3 years
- generally not used in agriculture but could be
Describe the Cervid Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Surveillance Program
- who is required to participate?
- when must it be reported?
all domestic hunters that keep cervids in Saskatchewan are required to participate
Mandatory testing of all farmed cervids over the age of 12 months
all animals infected or suspected of being infected with CWD must be reported to Canadian Food Inspection Agency district veterinarian
Cross-Compliance is a ______ policy instrument?
Describe what cross-compliance is.
Command and Control
Environmental standards are set; if they are not met by the farmer, then they become ineligible for other agricultural support programs
Examples
In the EU, farmers must meet the nutrient emission objectives, or they become ineligible for financial support available under the EU Common Agricultural Program
Swampbuster - Farmers who degrade or remove wetlands from their land become ineligible for the US Agricultural support systems
what are economic payment instruments for agriculture
Payments/charges that change the cost or benefits to change land use decisions
- Payments encourage actions that provide environmental benefits (payments that internalize the external benefits)
- Payments can encourage the adoption of management that decreases environmental costs.
Describe the differences between payments based on resource retirement vs payments based on farming practice
- Payment based on resource retirement: land set aside, remove land from intensive production
- Payment based on farming practice: working land programs (Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs), decreased input intensity, organic incentives)
Draw out a chart for conservation payments showing the external benefit
Where would we see more outstanding payments vs lesser payments in terms of social benefits
- Greater payments are for greater management expectations and more excellent provision of social (external) benefits (or decrease in social costs)
- Smaller payments are required where benefits of management change are primarily private (internal), e.g., more efficient use of inputs/resources
What is a BMP? A BMP requires completion of what assessment?
A voluntary program that has greater adoption with more excellent payment rates can be expensive for taxpayers
- requires an Agri-Environmental Risk Assessment that evaluates practices in soil and nutrient management, crop and press management, water, biodiversity, storage of inputs, etc.
What is the main goal of a Beneficial Management Practice (BMP)
Any agricultural management practice which the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture:
- Ensures the long-term health and sustainability of agricultural land, while optimizing economic production
- minimizes negative impacts and risk to the environment.
What is the goal of the Resilient Agricultural Landscapes Program (RALP)?
to provide funding to adopt BMPs
- increase the environmental resiliency of agricultural land
- achieve outcomes related to water quality, soil health, and biodiversity
What are some examples of land use BMPs?
- targeted grazing: manage large-scale invasive plant infestation through non-herbicide practices
- Seeding native forage: Establish native perennial forage cover to provide wildlife habitat and sequester carbon
- seeding tame forage: converts cropland to perennial forage cover to sequester carbon, reduce soil erosion, improve water infiltration and provide biodiversity
