Danielle Smith picks new fight with the feds

Danielle Smith has picked a new fight with the federal government over a proposed program to help industrial feedlots meet climate targets that will not even apply in her province.

In a recent tweet, the Alberta premier laid into the so-called "REME protocol," a program that will let farmers earn money through the sale of carbon offsets in exchange for changing how they feed and manage their herds.

Cows' digestive tracts emit methane, a planet-heating greenhouse gas 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide. Adding some yeasts and more energy-efficient feeds to a cow’s diet can help the animal grow to full size faster, meaning that over its lifetime, each animal will belch less methane into the atmosphere. This so-called enteric fermentation is responsible for the majority of Canadian agricultural emissions, and feedlots are major emitters.

Farmers who can prove the changes reduce how much they emit per kilogram of beef they produce can sell offset credits regulated by the federal government. This means industrial polluters like fossil fuel companies can buy them and count them as part of their mandated emissions reduction targets.

Citing a handful of right-wing columnists, Smith falsely tweeted the program "calls for using chemical additives to reduce emissions," calling it "a new low for eco-extremists."

The post was joined by a photoshopped image of a smirking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a cowboy hat wagging a finger at an unnaturally large cow grazing on idyllic mountain pastures with the caption: "Do you agree? To reduce emissions from cows, the federal government is proposing new chemical additives." A Government of Canada logo was slapped on the image in a spoof of real social media posts by the federal government.

Smith's post drew condemnation from people who pointed out the new federal proposal won’t apply in Alberta. Alberta feedlots are excluded from the protocol because they are already covered by a provincial equivalent that has been in place since 2016, according to the Canadian Cattle Association.

That program formed the blueprint for the federal proposal. Alberta has also poured money into several projects making feed additives to reduce emissions from cattle, including at least one revealed to be questionable by Canada's National Observer.

"I wouldn't be surprised if (Smith) got a call from the cattle industry saying: 'What are you making a fuss about? We want this,’" said Ryan Katz-Rosene, a political economist specializing in food systems and farming at the University of Ottawa.

The new feeding protocol pushes farmers to make their herds more efficient and healthier. Experimental feed additives that reduce methane emissions from digestion — including well-publicized ones made from seaweed — are not on the list of eligible additives.

In a statement, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault attacked Smith's comments as "another case where bad politics trumps good policy for the premier." It is "sad to see" her attack a voluntary program modelled off Alberta's and developed as part of larger federal efforts to work with the cattle industry to reduce methane emissions, he said.

"Does she think that beef farmers are eco-terrorists, too? I think the premier would do better to check her facts before going on the attack. She jeopardizes a lot of good work happening on the ground."

Smith's office was contacted for comment but did not reply by deadline.

In a statement, Canadian Cattle Association president Nathan Phinney said the group "looks forward to looking at how this protocol will provide incentives directly to beef producers" and believes "in a science- and evidence-based approach in which producers can voluntarily adopt new practices … that could reduce enteric methane emissions."

Researchers agree eating and raising less meat — particularly beef — is the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food, which account for about a third of global GHGs. Canada's largest feedlot, a 75,000-head facility owned by global meat giant JBS Canada, is the country's 11th-largest methane emitter.

But the Canadian and global meat lobby has thwarted measures that could shift meat consumption patterns or force companies to raise smaller herds. Take the recent COP28, where advocates say the first-ever UN plan to reduce food emissions' relatively low-key position on reducing meat consumption and herd sizes is evidence of industry lobbying. In Canada, meat producers have so far escaped most of the more stringent emissions reduction measures implemented on industrial polluters like the fossil fuel industry.

The program drawing Smith's ire is a "win-win" for meat companies that will let them profit from modest, financially beneficial changes to their management practices.

Payouts resulting from the program will be modest, with Katz-Rosene estimating that a farmer with a herd of 10,000 cows who managed to reduce their methane emissions by 10 per cent would receive about $6,500 for their offset credits. These small sums mean the protocol won't offer much to smaller feedlots, he said. Moreover, ranchers who feed their cattle grass and dairy farmers and livestock farmers raising other livestock like sheep are excluded from the program.

"It's a financial incentive for better management," he said. "From a corporate point of view, it's money and it's something more efficient that is improving your performance, so why not?"