Stronger farms and ranches, stronger Canada
This federal election provides us with an important opportunity to advocate for investments that support farmers and ranchers working to increase the resilience of the operations. By engaging with your local candidates, you can ensure that on-farm resilience is recognized as a priority, regardless of who forms Canada’s next government.
Farmers and ranchers across Canada are facing mounting challenges, extreme weather, rising input costs, trade disruptions, and market instability. Investing in on-farm resilience is more important than ever—it’s an essential economic strategy to safeguard Canada’s food supply, protect rural economies, and strengthen our agricultural sector’s viability. Prioritizing resilience benefits all Canadians.
HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED
Over the coming weeks, we will be attempting to meet with as many election candidates as possible to describe the challenges that farmers and ranchers are facing, and to demonstrate that investing in on-farm resilience is a win-win solution for producers and government.
To support farmers and ranchers in engaging with candidates, we have prepared an advocacy toolkit that includes:
A social media amplification package
Ready-to-use messages and graphics to spread the word online.
A step-by-step guide and proposed outline for meeting with candidates
Helpful tips on how to book a meeting and effectively engage with candidates, and background information and data about the urgent need to invest in on-farm resilience.
Did you meet with a candidate about on-farm resilience?
If you have any questions about the campaign, please reach out to election@farmersforclimatesolutions.ca.
NOW IS THE TIME TO INVEST
With crop losses escalating, skyrocketing crop insurance payouts now account for 63% of all public agricultural spending. Climate risk is already threatening farm viability, with 76% of farmers and ranchers saying they have been impacted by severe weather events over the past five years.
To address these issues, urgent investments in on-farm resilience are needed in the following key areas that have strong sector support:
Technical support and training: Invest in technical support offered by agronomists and peer-to-peer farmer and rancher networks—a cost-effective way to develop on‑farm resilience action plans, accelerate practice adoption, and drive lasting change. Programs like AgriClimat in Quebec demonstrate the success of this approach and should be expanded nationwide.
Incentives: Continue improving and expanding programs that incentivize the adoption of on-farm resilience practices, such as extending funding for the On-Farm Climate Action Fund.
Risk management tools: Urgently review Business Risk Management programs to make them more responsive to climate shocks and ensure they enhance on-farm resilience, including through AgriInvest top-ups for adopting high resilience practices.
On-farm data: Support more frequent soil sampling to improve resilience planning, benchmarking, and effective progress measurement.
What is on-farm resilience?
On-farm resilience is the capacity of farms and ranches to withstand challenges like extreme weather, market shifts, and other disruptions. Building on-farm resilience involves implementing practices that can:
- Improve soil health
- Enhance biodiversity
- Reduce reliance on costly or tariff-prone inputs