Advanced BioFuels USA

(Grain Farmers of Ontario/Globe Newswire)  Grain Farmers of Ontario opposed to land use restrictions, and seek transparency on certification criteria —  Grain Farmers of Ontario, the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers today has deep concerns about the current Clean Fuels Standard (CFS) proposed by the Canadian government, are opposed to the criteria for land use, and ask for transparency around carbon numbers and any certification processes. 

The CFS currently contains restrictions on land use, which will discourage farmers from planting and growing biofuel crops. The restrictions do not take into account the sustainability efforts that farmers already take, or the competitive advantage that will now benefit other countries selling corn and soybeans into Canada for biofuels.  

“Farmers today already use less land to grow more. Our farmer-members are constantly evolving their operations to be more sustainable, meaning we can help to provide the grains needed for true carbon emission reduction practices across the country in a sustainable, renewable way, but not if we are continually restricted by a government that is not making decisions based on scientific analysis,” said Markus Haerle, Chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario. 

Over the last 30 years, grain farmers have increased land use efficiency by 39 percent and reduced their climate impact by 45 percent in corn production alone. 

Grain farmers in Ontario produce most of Canada’s corn and soybeans – both important grains in ethanol and biodiesel production. Ethanol is proven to reduce carbon emissions by almost 40 percent in vehicular emissions – one of the largest culprits of GHG. Any regulations that make it harder for farmers to produce crops for domestic biofuels use are actually detrimental to the goals of the CFS. 

“Our growing practices have been assessed and deemed sustainable by the US Environmental Protection Agency. We are shocked to see a regulation that will damage our ability to trade freely and negatively impact our own domestic markets. Instead of embracing the hard work farmers do to grow crops for the green economy, the proposed Clean Fuels Standard will penalize farmers,” Haerle continued. “The potential impacts to the rural communities we farm in, and support, are very concerning to us.”

The CFS puts needless regulatory burden on farmers and the important role that Ontario-grown corn and locally produced ethanol plays in reducing carbon emissions. The CFS also diminishes the potential of Ontario agriculture in assisting with a post-COVID economic recovery. 

Grain Farmers of Ontario urges the government to:

• Exclude the land use criteria in the CFS as unnecessary red tape that will negatively impact the ability of Ontario farmers to drive ethanol production, which ignores the tremendous work that farmers have done and continue to do to improve their environmental footprint.

GRAIN FARMERS OF ONTARIO

Grain Farmers of Ontario is the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean, and wheat farmers. The crops they grow cover over 6 million acres of farm land across the province, generate over $4.1 billion in production value, result in over $18 billion in economic output and are responsible for over 75,000 jobs in the province.  READ MORE

Improved your land? Kiss your ethanol market goodbye (The Sudbury Star)

US ethanol sees big gains in Canada’s Clean Fuel Standard (AgWeek)

Excerpt from The Sudbury Star: Have you improved your land any time since 2007? The federal government is planning to thank you by prohibiting crops grown on improved lands from feeding the bio-fuel industry.

It’s part of the proposed Clean Fuel Standard scheduled for comment this fall and it has galvanized grain farmers into a call for action.

As shared in a land use and biodiversity PowerPoint presentation with agricultural stakeholders earlier this month, the Clean Fuel Standard will penalize any farm entity which has removed land from pasture, cleared forests or drained wetlands after Jan 1, 2008, making them ineligible to supply bio-fuel plants.

The Clean Fuel Standard categorizes it as LUB (Land Use Biodiversity) criteria.

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Feedstocks subject to Land Use Biodiversity criteria (LUB) as laid out in the document include corn, sugarcane, sorghum, soybeans, canola and wood biomass.

The CFS seeks instead to see fuels manufactured from industrial effluents, used construction and demolition materials (not 100% bio-based), CO2 captured from atmosphere or stack emissions to fuel and H2 (as feedstock for fuel).

It’s part of a plan to stimulate investment and innovation in low carbon fuels and technologies, stakeholders were told. Plus, it brings the Clean Fuel Standard into sync with EU specifications.

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“Ontario doesn’t have enough market for it (corn) if we can’t send it to an ethanol plant,” says Pete Archer, owner of an elevator at Maizeing Acres in Campbellford.

The impact would be felt across the province, Haerle says, explaining the riparian criteria of 100 feet of cropland would be measured along every waterway, rendering thousands of acres ineligible.

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Archer says there’s no knowing how much land, especially in central and eastern Ontario, has been improved to produce higher yields by clearing and tile draining.

“We can’t undo what we’ve done up until this point. We built a good ethanol industry, and we need to keep that running.”

“We can’t just unwind what we spent decades building.”

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The plan for liquid fuels implementation includes draft regulations being published in the Canada Gazette, Part I in fall 2020, followed by a 75-day consultation period with the final regulations in Canada Gazette, Part II in late 2021.  READ MORE