A New Agriculture Product
Presented by Norm Ward
www.rangeward.ca
 EGS
are the benefits arising from
the ecological functions of healthy
ecosystems. Such benefits accrue
to all living organisms including
plants, animals, not just humans
 EGS is a new emerging Agriculture
product
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www.rangeward.ca
Unregulated Market Place at One End ,where
EGS has no Value
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Partial Market Place With Government as the
Only Purchaser of EGS, and partial EGS value
Full Market Place with Many Private
Purchasers of EGS
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Air sheds, watersheds, groundwater,
scenic lands, and ecologically
important but sensitive ecosystems
are widely considered ‘‘public goods.’’
That is, in an unregulated
marketplace, people who pay to
‘‘consume’ ’environmental goods and
services are unable to keep those who
don’t pay from enjoying the benefits
of that purchase.
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An example of Government treating
endangered species as a public good
in an unregulated market place.
Government dismissed the concept of
either a market place or financial
compensation to landowners that
provided habitat for species at risk
and instead used centralized planning
with punitive regulation
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A market place may be created when
EGS services are demanded by society
and supplied by public and private
landowners.
 The Alberta Land Stewardship Act
passed in 2009 facilitates the creation
of market based instruments
associated with EGS
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 Incentives
to maintain ecosystems
 Ecological Gifts Program provides
tax credits
 Tradeable Development Credits
 Conservation Offsets
 Conservation Directives
 Conservation Easements in a
capped market place
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Grass finished beef
Paid access for hunting activities
Viewscape – residential clusters
surrounded by natural landscape
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As in any market place, legislation,
regulation and common law provide a
framework to operate in
 Property rights associated with the
new EGS agriculture product must be
defined and protected
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Agriculture will produce products with the
highest financial value
Traditionally these products are sold into a
developed market place with common law
that supports ownership of the product,
and thus allows agriculture products to be
bought and sold with confidence
Since the market place for EGS is still
developing, high EGS land continues to
produces traditional agriculture products
with the absence of an EGS value
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 The
market place must be allowed
to align the economic and
ecological signals
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High value traditional
oilseed product with low
EGS
Low value traditional meat
product with high EGS
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Although canola land may have a lower EGS value
it offers 2 or 3 times the return on investment
over a natural landscape with a high EGS value
Canola is marketed into an established market
place which does not include EGS
A natural landscape may produce meat products
from grazing animals and increasingly will sell
EGS associated with the traditional product
The difference between the two agriculture
products is directly related to land prices
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Continued differentiation of the meat
protein market now includes products that
are –either perceived or real – associated
with EGS
Natural/ Organic Beef
Grass Finished Beef
Grass finished pork
Grass finished poultry
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Functional foods provide health benefits
over and above basic human nutrition
Omega-3 enriched eggs, milk, yogurt and
pork are now available
These enriched foods provide basic
nutrition but also help protect the heart by
potentially lowering blood cholesterol.
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Omega 3 fatty acids are formed in
chloroplasts of green leaves and algae
Grasses and in particular native grass,
provide a source of omega 3 fatty acids in
beef.
When cattle are fed omega 3 deficient grain,
they begin losing the store beneficial fat
The Canadian government permits the claimDHA, and Omega 3 fatty acid supports the
normal development of brain, eyes and
nerves
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Some research that indicates a ratio of
omega 6 to omega 3 needed for a healthy
human diet should be about 4 to 1
Common oils
- canola 2:1
- soybean 7:1
- corn oil 46:1
Beef - grass fed 2:1
- grain fed 4:1 to 20:1
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CFIA label claims of “contains omega 3
polyunsaturated fatty acids” must have 300
milligrams of omega 3 per 100 grams of
food
Grass fed beef may be able to meet label
requirements without supplementation
There is a need for a rapid omega 3 test for
meat, so that meat and trim can be sorted
for maximum omega 3 yield
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FEB is functional ecological beef
- reflects the functional aspect of omega 3
beef as a food
- reflects the functional aspect of the
environment the animal was raised in
FED is traditional grain finished beef
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Functional ecological foods provide a
positive outcome for the health of
people and the environment
 This is where people goals, land goals,
and with a new market place for EGS,
financial goals meet.
 The market place is starting to align
the economic and ecological signals
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www.rangeward.ca
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Landowners who become outfitters and
acquire tags are able to charge for guiding
non resident hunters
Huge potential for landowners with outfitter
and tag licences to band together to form a
hunting access zone (similar to a hunting
zone)
Wild game is a direct reflection of a healthy
complex ecosystem producing extensive
environmental goods and services
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As viewscape becomes more important
municipal bylaws and provincial regional
plans must be realigned to provide for
clusters of residential housing with
viewscape in between cluster.
This may be best handled using tradeable
development credits in an open, and
competitive market place
Viewscape has a market place value
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Modifying farming and grazing practices
may yield more soil water storage
The current market place continuum for EGS
puts water storage in an unregulated
market and thus a public good
Soil water storage can be quantified and
this may indirectly provide a measurement
indicator for a new market place.
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At one end of the continuum we have EGS
as a public good and no market place with
Species at Risk
At the other end we have the beginnings of
a market place for EGS, although as indirect
one, with FEB cattle, access for hunting,
viewscape
If we can measure EGS, such as water
storage, will a market place develop
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 The
market place must be allowed
to align the economic and
ecological signals
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Self contained
Two miles of turbo rope
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