How Alberta’s farming sector can adapt to tap into growing demand for environment-friendly goods, services and processes is expected to be one of the key fields of study for a new provincially-funded institute.
Premier Ed Stelmach launched the “virtual” Alberta Institute for Agriculture, Forestry and the Environment on Monday with $800,000 and a budget for a small staff and has named farmer and former provincial Liberal leader Ken Nicol to chair the new institute.
The province described the new organization as not being a “bricks and mortar” institute, but a body that will work with existing institutes and industry groups to:
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- recommend a policy framework for environmental goods and services markets in Alberta;
- recommend an approach both to document “green” renewable resource production in the province’s ag and forestry sectors, and to use that documentation to “brand” Alberta’s environmental stewardship accordingly; and
- seek out practices elsewhere in the world that Alberta could use to boost market access for its renewable resource sectors.
Agriculture Minister George Groeneveld, who will oversee the project, said consumers and businesses are “actively seeking” greener products and companies.
“We’re confident industry will embrace solutions that are a smart investment in their own future success, and government is committed to helping to shape a business environment that further supports positive changes,” he said in a release Monday.
Nicol, who represented Lethbridge in the Alberta legislature for 11 years, including a three-year stint as party leader, is now an associate professor in the faculty of management at the University of Lethbridge.
The remaining four members of the new institute’s board will be nominated in a joint effort by the province and the ag and forestry sectors.
