February 10, 2025
This 4-year project — funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Maple Leaf Foods and Nutrien — will help farmers measure the impacts of their climate-smart farming practices and unlock economic opportunities for these environmental outcomes.
UPDATED as of February 13, 2025; For Immediate Release – February 10, 2025
OTTAWA, ON — Today, the Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-food (CANZA), a Generate Canada Solution Space, announced a $4-million project to develop technology tools and processes for measuring, reporting and verifying (MRV) soil carbon. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is supporting this project by providing up to $2 million in funding to Generate Canada through its Agricultural Clean Technology Program – Research and Innovation Stream. Maple Leaf Foods and Nutrien, two of CANZA’s founding partners, are matching this funding for a total of $4 million. Once developed, this system is expected to help farmers across Canada measure the impacts of their climate-smart farming practices and be compensated for those outcomes.
“Investing in clean technology helps farmers tackle today’s challenges, like droughts and extreme weather, while setting them up for a stronger, more resilient future,” said the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. “This new investment builds on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost both productivity and profits for our farmers.”
This project builds off two pilot projects CANZA conducted in Saskatchewan and Manitoba throughout 2023-2024 to test out its MRV Framework. The framework was developed in collaboration with the Smart Prosperity Institute (SPI), informed by a four-year AAFC-funded research project at SPI. The results of these pilots provided critical and positive insights into the framework’s effectiveness, accuracy and scalability.
The $4-million project announced today aims to expand upon the MRV framework and the 5,000 acres tested in Saskatchewan to 15,000 acres across four different locations in the province. CANZA and its partners will facilitate three activities: 1) optimizing the soil sampling process; 2) developing a handheld, in-field MRV tool; and 3) facilitating knowledge sharing of the MRV system. Farmers and agronomists will also be engaged in this project as critical partners in testing and demonstrating the processes and tools — helping to ensure the MRV system’s effectiveness and widespread adoption.
Kristjan Hebert, President at The Hebert Group, was part of the initial pilot project in Saskatchewan and is supporting the expansion to more acres. “We are happy to continue to support this CANZA initiative. Our definition of sustainability has always been to improve the financials, the land, the community, and the industry every generation. The development of a simple MRV system will allow farmers to actually have the ability to receive a cheque for the climate-smart practices they use to manage the farm. As seen in the Global Institute for Food Security's report, Canadian farms are leading the world in sustainable production and should be compensated for it.” says Hebert.
By the end of this project, CANZA and its partners expect to have developed a regionally relevant, cost-effective, and scalable MRV system. This system will aim to enable farmers to quickly and cost-effectively measure the environmental outcomes of their climate-smart farming practices. In turn, these farmers can monetize these outcomes directly — such as selling credits to organizations looking to offset their emissions — or increase the profitability of their commodity within their value chain or other sectors. The knowledge-sharing component of this project will aim to drive the uptake of climate-smart farming practices and the MRV system.
“Soil testing is important to better understand the soil microbiome and how soil characteristics differ by geographic region, but it’s a time-consuming process,” says Tim Faveri, VP, Global Sustainability at Nutrien. “Streamlining this process to where enough soil can be characterized in a library and used as a reflective measurement rather than requiring individual soil tests would be a major advancement in efficiency for the agriculture industry. Nutrien is excited to be part of the AAFC Ag Clean Tech Program and to help provide incentives and funds for tool development to make this advancement a reality.”
"We are thrilled to support this groundbreaking initiative by CANZA. At Maple Leaf Foods, sustainability is core to who we are. With a vision to be the most sustainable protein company on Earth, this project aligns perfectly with our mission to promote climate-smart farming practices and create economic opportunities for farmers. By developing advanced MRV tools and processes, we are taking a significant step towards a more sustainable and profitable future for Canadian agriculture," says Dr. Randy Huffman, Chief Food Safety and Sustainability Officer at Maple Leaf Foods.
Alongside Maple Leaf Foods and Nutrien, additional project partners include the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan, SoilTeck, and TheoryMesh. Dr. Asim Biswas, Professor at the University of Guelph's School of Environmental Sciences and Founder of SoilTeck, will facilitate the soil sampling optimization process with researchers at the University of Saskatchewan. TheoryMesh will work collaboratively with researchers at the University of Guelph and the University of Saskatchewan on technology development, as well as lead the development of the MRV supporting platform.
"We are very enthusiastic about this project as it exemplifies CANZA’s collaborative, value-driven, and transformative role in the agri-food sector,” says Nick Betts, Managing Director at CANZA. “By uniting diverse stakeholders, we can co-create, implement, and scale innovative solutions that enhance economic and environmental resilience — benefiting farmers, agri-food system participants, and Canadians nationwide.”
We encourage folks who are interested in this project to stay up-to-date on the latest information by registering to stay informed via CANZA’s website.
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For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:
CANZA
Rebecca Babcock, Communications Specialist, [email protected]
ABOUT CANZA
CANZA is Canada’s leading multi-stakeholder agriculture alliance focused on progressing a resilient agri-food system. We bring together farmers, industry, government and academia to co-create and accelerate solutions toward a sustainable, profitable and productive agri-food future. We are a solution space of Generate Canada, a charitable organization that, in partnership with the Smart Prosperity Institute, seeks to generate solutions for a strong and inclusive economy that thrives within nature’s limits.
ABOUT MAPLE LEAF Foods
Maple Leaf Foods is a leading protein company responsibly producing food products under leading brands including Maple Leaf®, Maple Leaf Prime®, Maple Leaf Natural Selections®, Schneiders®, Mina®, Greenfield Natural Meat Co.®, LightLife® and Field Roast™. The Company employs approximately 13,500 people and does business primarily in Canada, the U.S. and Asia. The Company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario and its shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (MFI).
ABOUT NUTRIEN
Nutrien is a leading global provider of crop inputs and services. We operate a world-class network of production, distribution and ag retail facilities that positions us to efficiently serve the needs of growers. We focus on creating long-term value by prioritizing investments that strengthen the advantages of our business across the ag value chain and by maintaining access to the resources and the relationships with stakeholders needed to achieve our goals.
