Team Alberta Crops represents crop and honey producers at the Alberta legislature

On March 19 and 20, 2025, Team Alberta Crops came together in the provincial capital for its second annual outreach days under the expanded Team Alberta Crops model. Team Alberta Crops represents a working collaboration between seven of Alberta’s crop commissions: Alberta Beekeepers Commission, Alberta Canola, Alberta Grains, Alberta Pulse Growers, Alberta-British Columbia Seed Growers, Alberta Sugar Beet Growers and the Potato Growers of Alberta. Collectively, Team Alberta Crops represents approximately 21,000 farmer members across Alberta and works together to advocate on behalf of farmers, provide policy input to government, promote the long-term sustainability of Alberta’s crop and honey sectors and ensure long-term access to markets.

“Working together with other crop commissions has always just made sense,” says Kevin Bender, a delegate with Alberta Grains and a farmer representative in past meetings with officials. “Farmers are growing many crops in rotation, and the policy concerns don’t really change by commodity.”

Represented by farmer directors and staff from each commission, the group met with numerous officials over the two days, including ministers, key provincial government officials, members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) from both the UCP and NDP caucuses, and federal government staff in targeted one-on-one meetings and through a planned networking reception.

Team Alberta Crops’ collective message focused on shared key policy priorities and the general policy and regulatory environment needed to continue growing the crop and honey sector both domestically and internationally. The group’s priorities centre on retaining competitiveness through innovation, ensuring the industry’s sustainability for the next generation, overcoming regulatory hurdles, and addressing market access and trade—a critical and timely issue given that Alberta crops and honey exports exceeded $6.9 billion in 2024, an increase of about 35 per cent from 2019, while some key markets face uncertainty. The potential for agri-food value-added production in the province is being realized in some sectors and could increase over the next decade in others with an enabling policy environment and the continual advancement and adoption of new technology. Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, headed by Minister RJ Sigurdson, is committed to this growth with a focus on investment attraction by creating the right conditions and programs for investors in the agriculture and agri-food industries, such as the Alberta Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit.

Alberta farmers operate in a high-risk environment with thin margins and high capital costs, compounded by unpredictable markets, weather, and unique operating structures. To ensure continued competitiveness, farmers need transparency, consultation and accountability from all levels of government regarding regulatory decisions that could impact their operations and erode the competitiveness of the crop sector. Farmers often look to the provincial government to help overcome red tape at the provincial level and amplify concerns in the federal regulatory environment to ensure a predictable, streamlined and science-based regulatory framework that supports access to innovative tools. One of the top-of-mind issues for farmers discussed during outreach was implementing legislation passed by Parliament to allow farmers in Alberta the right to diagnose or repair their equipment or engage third parties to do so, expediting wait times during critical periods.

Further, Alberta’s crop and honey sectors compete on their high quality and leading-edge practices. The global competitiveness of Alberta producers relies on innovative agronomic and genetic research. Through their commissions, farmers fund a significant level of research. Approximately $15.5 million of farmers’ levy dollars are directed annually to co-funding various research projects. Both farmers and the public receive significant benefits from publicly funded research, including food security and affordability, resilience, environmental benefits, enhanced nutrition, and overall economic growth and competitiveness. Investments made in Budget 2025, including funding for the Crop Diversification Centres (CDC) in the north and south, Western Crop Innovation (WCI), and Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR), are welcome and imperative to directing value to farmers and increasing productivity and economic growth. Team Alberta Crops is aligned in prioritizing continued, long-term investment from all levels of government in research infrastructure, plant breeding, and bee health research, as well as restoring gaps in extension capacity for the benefit of all—farmers, the economy, the environment and consumers.

Alison Davie, chair of the Potato Growers of Alberta, who participated in the meetings, found them to be productive.

“It is a very busy time for potato growers, who are in the middle of contract negotiations and concerns around the proposed U.S. tariffs, but I’m glad I made time to step away. There is tremendous value in meeting collectively with other crop groups to continue to build our valued relationships with government.”

Team Alberta crop commissions have a long history of collaboration that has only benefited from expansion over the last three years to include more commodities. Government officials find value in groups coming together to speak with a united voice and grow Alberta’s first-class crop sector.