Recently I participated in the Canadian National Debate Seminar. This was a great event that brought together youth from all across Canada to the agriculture hub of North America: Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is one of the greenest provinces in Canada, because it depends upon nature for its economy. We had to debate upon the theme of agriculture, and since agriculture is linked to the environement, many of our debate topics were linked to the environment. I was able to learn lots about agriculture and the environment. I would love to share some of the facts we debated upon and learned at the event and get your opinion on it:

• Agriculture as an industry worldwide contributes over 25% of the world carbon emissions. This is more than all of the entire worlds transportation systems put together.
• On average, to harvest 1 acre of land we put 10 tonnes of CO2 in atmosphere.
• Despite legislation and laws, many farms continue to use chemicals to fertilize soil and pesticides. 
• Wastes and chemicals from farms caused the deaths of 1000s of people in Waterloo, Canada due to contamination. 
• In province of British Columbia, keystone species of salmon are rapidly decreasing due to primary industries including farming, logging and mining.

Regards,

Nitish Bhatt

Founder and volunteer at United4Literacy

Tunza Ambassador of Canada