Dear Members and Friends of the NFU,

The NFU Climate Change Committee is asking you once again for your help to act on the resolution passed at the 53rd National Convention in November 2022:

Therefore be it resolved that the NFU advocate for our federal government to mobilize with near- wartime like intensity to create the Canadian Farm Resilience Administration (CFRA), modelled on the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA), to secure the resilience of Canada’s farm and food system during the current climate emergency,

Be it further resolved that NFU advocate for the Canadian Farm Resilience Administration (CFRA) to be a publicly funded, public interest institution operating across Canada whose functional units could include large numbers of public extension agrologists, research and farmer co-research facilities, demonstration farms, data collection units, soil testing labs, education and dissemination divisions and any other experts or professional services, as necessary.

Undertaking the challenges that farming faces, will require a framework of education, coordinated sharing of best practices, and the collective actions of all Canadian farmers. A CFRA would build trust with farmers and strengthen Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) efforts to reduce emissions by being a presence (boots-on-the-ground) in the countryside.

To that end, we are seeking your support for the creation of the Canadian Farm Resilience Agency (CFRA) by asking you to contact your MP, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Prime Minister and relevant critics from other parties. You are encouraged to write and/or meet with your MP, and send letters to the other elected officials. Hearing the voices of farmers from all across Canada, will demonstrate the urgent need for the CFRA and will apply pressure on the Federal government to take action. We are also asking you to share this request with your networks, so that we can create a strong show of support for a CFRA.

Below are information points should you wish to customize a letter to your MP or other elected officials. Alternatively, you can copy and paste the sample letter below, to send by email or to print, sign and send by Canada Post. Find your MP and their contact information at https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en – just type in your postal code.

More information on our vision for a CFRA and the history of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) is available on the NFU website at: https://www.nfu.ca/publications/nfu-proposed-cfra/. The CFRA background documents and the history of the PFRA can also be forwarded to your MP.

Thank you for your support. Together, we can make a difference.

In Union,

NFU Climate Change Committee

Points to include when contacting your MP and/or elected officials
Canada and the world are in a climate emergency;

• reducing greenhouse gases from agriculture is one of the most complex emissions-reduction tasks facing Canada, as there must be reductions in three gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane) from over 200,000 farms which vary in type, scale and location;
• we need to build significant capacity in Canada to address the climate emergency in agriculture;
• the highly thought of and successful Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was the right response to the environmental, economic, social and climatic challenges faced by the Prairie provinces in the 1930’s;
• the PFRA updated to the 21 st century and national in scope, ie a Canadian Farm Resilience Agency (CFRA), provides a model to address the current climate emergency and the challenges we will face for many decades;
• as a publicly funded, public interest institution, a CFRA can build trust with farmers by being a presence (boots-on-the-ground) in the countryside;
• a CFRA will train, hire and deploy public servant agrologists (ie agrologists whose priorities are the health of the farmers and the environment, not profits) across the country;
• a CFRA will create and staff a network of demonstration farms and farmer-public researcher facilities;
• a CFRA will build collect and share data on emissions, soil health, fertilizer rate optimization and so on;
• a CFRA will work with farmers, Indigenous communities and others to protect and restore wetlands, grasslands, treed areas, shelterbelts, pastures and other land set-aside and permanent-cover programs;
• a CFRA will build long-term capacity to help farmers address the climate emergency, by both reducing emissions and adapting to the changing climates.