'Buying snake oil': Growers ask Ottawa for help avoiding shoddy fertilizer alternatives

The National Farmers Union wants Ottawa to bring back a program it says would help farmers avoid lousy fertilizer alternatives.

Until 2013, the federal government tested products claiming to be viable replacements for traditional fertilizers, according to the union.

With farmers facing pressure to bring down their emissions, now is the time to bring back the program, the group says. 

"Basically, we don't want to be buying snake oil," said Glenn Norman, a director with the National Farmers Union. 

"A lot of these products are touting what they can do. But why should the farmer be the test vehicle?"

The federal government has set a target of reducing fertilizer emissions to 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030.

Producers and the Alberta government have pushed back against the emissions target. 

Norman, who raises cattle and grows hay in Red Deer County, said the number of companies claiming to offer effective replacements for carbon-intensive fertilizers is on the rise. 

"There seems to be more all the time. I can probably go online and find at least 100 different companies pushing this," he said.

"This agribusiness's purpose is to make money, right? If they can sell something, whether it's snake oil or whether it's real, their idea is to gain a profit from it."

Compost tea, powdered seaweed, fungi and microbial inoculants are all examples of non-fertilizer supplements, according to the farmers union. 

A report produced by the union does acknowledge "considerable independent evidence" on the benefits of some non-fertilizer supplements. 

The group wants the government to require multi-year, multi-site tests for non-fertilizer supplements, which must be submitted for government scrutiny and verification. 

Linda Gorim, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, has concerns about oversight under the current system.

Gorim said she tested non-fertilizer supplements for farmers in Germany while getting her PhD in that country. 

She said her testing did turn up ineffective products. 

"It is a problem here on the Canadian Prairies because it is not regulated," she said. "Not every company has been upfront about their products."

"What if we get a problem 20 years from today? How are we supposed to know what caused it if nobody is tracking these things?"

Gorim said the Canadian government could make companies pay universities to verify fertilizer alternative products if the government doesn't want to pay for testing.

Farmers willing to change but need help

A growing number of farmers are willing to shift away from traditional fertilizers but worry about the risk of making changes, according to Pincher Creek farmer Gary Lewis. 

Lewis developed a technology called Bio-Agtive, which collects exhaust from tractors or other sources and injects the material back into the ground as a carbon-based biofertilizer.

Demand for the technology is on the rise, he said. 

"I haven't used fertilizer for 24 years.… We have farmers around the world that are using the method."

Farmers are motivated to adopt his and other energy-efficient methods because of the high cost of fertilizer, he said. 

"We, as farmers, can't afford all the inputs anymore. We can hardly repair our machines that are so expensive, let alone inputs that take all the profit away," said Lewis, adding that more government support would speed up the energy transition in farming. 

In a statement, the CFIA noted that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the CSA Group (formerly known as the Canadian Standards Association) are exploring the potential for developing voluntary industry standards, and that the CFIA is involved in an advisory role, providing background information and sharing relevant data.