First the new religionists of climate change targeted Alberta for the carbon footprint of oilsands, conventional crude and natural gas.
Now they are aiming at our beef.
Alberta has the largest number of beef and dairy cattle in the country – approximately 3.5 million head of beef cattle and 81,000 dairy cows. That’s 41 per cent of the national herd.
Alberta is the national villain of red meat. Pass the black hats.
That said, the Alberta agricultural community understands that the globe is the living platform for our species.
Unaffected by the nattering of the climate change zealots, Alberta agriculture looks for responsible ways to produce food efficiently and affordably.
A new International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report says humans should switch to a plant-based diet because the world’s red meat and dairy diet “fuels” climate change.
A meat-based diet – including pigs and poultry -- cannot feed the projected global population, now forecast to grow to 11 billion souls in this century.
The scientists have prepared a planetary heath diet of nuts, vegetables such as lentils and beans, and a small amount of meat that can feed 10 billion people without irreparable damage to the globe.
The IPCC report, prepared by 107 scientists as authors, stops short of saying we should all become vegans or vegetarians but the message is clear. Meat is bad and plants are good.
A recent University of Oxford study reports that agriculture, forestry and similar land use accounts for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Alberta farmers cultivate crops on 50.5 million acres. The crops include canola for edible oil, wheat, pulses, lentils and other crops that would contribute to the planetary health diet being advocated as the alternative to meat and dairy.
Another opportunity for Alberta world agricultural leadership outlined in IPCC reports is care of soil.
North American agricultural practice is often criticized for being based on oil, not soil – dependent on oil and gas-based fertilizers.
Some 97 per cent of human food comes from overlooked and undervalued soil. A third of all land is now "degraded" and the risk of desertification is serious.
When Canada opened the northwest, cattle ranches were the first successful enterprise established.
The grasslands of the Rocky Mountain slopes were a paradise for cattle that were raised on the ranches.
In 1870, cattle ranching was new. It got its start in California when the dairy herds of the Spanish missions were expanded to raise beef for hungry gold prospectors and railway construction crews.
The great herds that stocked the first Alberta ranches came north from the U.S.
A parallel agricultural success was growing agricultural crops in the Palliser Triangle – an arid steppe in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Western Canadian farmers know as much as anyone in the world about soil care from cultivating the Triangle and recovering from the dust bowl of the dirty thirties.
If the world does indeed turn away from beef and dairy, Alberta will have a head start on the future.
Frank Dabbs is a veteran political and business journalist and author.
