Rural Routes To Climate Solutions

FARM SOLUTIONS = CLIMATE SOLUTIONS Farmers and ranchers can play a pivotal role in building the low-carbon economy of the future. Especially in Alberta, home to one-third of Canada’s agricultural land and two important carbon sinks—grasslands and the boreal forest. Alberta also has some of the best solar and wind power resources in Canada. Climate solutions are often viewed as being an inconvenience to our everyday lives. But farm solutions are climate solutions and many of them have multiple concrete benefits that go beyond stopping climate change: improving soil fertility; creating new economic opportunities; protecting biodiversity; energy independence and building resiliency against droughts and floods. It is a win-win strategy. We are working with producers to put this win-win strategy into action. By providing learning opportunities to better understand climate solutions, we are empowering producers with the tools to reap the benefits of climate solutions for themselves and their communities. WHAT WE DO We run workshops and farm field days and produce a podcast series all in Alberta so agricultural producers can find out more about the climate solutions that work best on farms and ranches. We cover topics such as: -Soil Carbon Sequestration -Perennial Cereal Grains -On-Farm Solar and Energy Efficiency -Protecting Biodiversity to Increase Yields -Operating Passive Solar Greenhouses Our workshops and field days are led by experts from industry, universities and governments and are modeled on a ‘human library’ concept (participants can talk to presenters one-on-one between stops on a farm tour for example). We do what we can to make sure information from our events is available online either via the Farmer’s Blog or our podcast series. Podcast episodes can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play and you can stream episodes from our website or SoundCloud.