The President of APAS presented to a meeting of Federal, Provincial and Territorial ministers earlier this week in Guelph, Ontario.

Also representing the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Todd Lewis says climate change was a major focus of the meeting.

“Climate change is high on the agenda now and really in the general public right across the world,” Lewis said. “Agriculture has a role to play in mitigating climate change, and so we spoke to the ministers about that.”

Lewis says communication between levels of government and producers need to continue.

“I think we just need to have more collaboration and conversation with both governments and farmers and producers to talk about (climate change),” Lewis said. “Really, there’s a lot of opportunity here with climate change, and trying to mitigate those problems that arise in climate change. I think we need to talk more to governments and have them understand the good work that we have done in agriculture and the good work that we’re going to do in the future.”

Other topics discussed during the meeting include science, research and innovation, market development and trade, building sector capacity and growth, as well as resiliency and public trust.