The Green Plan is history and we're still in business! This was an issue back in 1994 when I took over the reins of the SSCA stagecoach. Many people felt the SSCA was underfunded for the last program and would not make it past March of '97. Others felt we had outlived our usefulness and would revert back to a "newsletter" organization or would dissolve and become a memory of the eighties. But we made it. And, we have signed some contracts that will take us through the next three years into the next millennium.
Unlike the last three years where we had one contract on which to focus, we now have several jobs to accomplish under a number of separate contracts. Our largest commitment is to the Agri-food Innovation Fund where we will conduct an information delivery system to farmers that is specific to sustainable agriculture. We have agreed to coordinate information between researchers, industry and farmers on any new and emerging technology pertaining to sustainable agriculture practices. This gives us a broad mandate to continue to work with farmers who are just getting into low disturbance seeding and also to work with those with whom we have interacted over past years and who will be demanding more specific and advanced information. One of our long standing partners, Monsanto Canada Inc., will provide us with funds to help us do this and also to help us reach more farmers so that we can convince them of the benefits of low disturbance seeding (LDS).
Our partnership with TransAlta Utilities will continue but will take on a slightly different role. In the past three year contract, TransAlta asked the SSCA to work towards increasing LDS acres in Saskatchewan. This we did and as such TransAlta now has enough acres to satisfy Environment Canada that they have done their part to develop a viable carbon offset program that addresses Canada's climate change goals. Our current contract with TransAlta has us working with over 120 cooperating farmers in Sask. who have changed to the LDS system in an effort to quantify the effects of LDS on soil carbon levels. This has tremendous implications for the power generating industry and the Canadian government. Canada has to find a way to offset the CO2 levels we are emitting into the atmosphere. One way to do this is to bank carbon in the soil through sustainable agriculture farm practices. We know this happens through practices like LDS but we need to determine just exactly how much carbon is sequestered through this practice. Once we know how much carbon is being stored we can develop a program whereby the rights to soil carbon can be transferred from grain producers to power producers through a brokerage agency like the SSCA. There are going to be a lot of interested parties in the power industry with money who will look at what we are doing and the results of our programs. This may be the way the SSCA can sustain our existence in the years beyond 2000. It's leading edge stuff which may result in the SSCA being right in the middle of the global warming/climate change issues coming down the pipe. It may also help change the way urbanites look upon rural producers. Right now many urbanites view modern farming practices as harmful to the environment and farmers as polluters. If all goes according to forecast, prairie producers can be seen as doing their part to contribute to a cleaner environment as well as addressing the global warming issue.
Other plans in the works will have the SSCA working with industry to develop and extend information on precision farming techniques and other new and emerging technologies that relate to soil conservation and sustainable farming practices.
Service to our SSCA members will also be a main component of future programs. Our membership has doubled over the past three years and will continue to grow as we reach and service new areas. Programs like our health benefits package will add to what we offer our membership.
We're alive and well and looking forward to conducting soil conservation programs through the remainder of this century. We hope you will be a part of these programs as well.