Protecting plant health essential to future prosperity and sustainability: New report - News Release

Protecting plant health essential to future prosperity and sustainability: New report News Release January 27, 2022 – Ottawa, ON From farms to forests, Canada’s plants face increasingly complex threats and protecting them is imperative to sustain the health and wealth they provide, according to Cultivating Diversity, a new expert panel report from the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA). [...] Climate change has exacerbated existing risks, such as extreme weather events, disease, and predators, while the increasing global movement of people and goods, and evolutionary processes add to the threat, demanding a change in Canada’s approach to protecting plant health. [...] Unless threats to plant health are recognized and effectively managed, we face risks that have the potential to be incredibly disruptive of ecosystems and put human and animal health, biodiversity, and food production in jeopardy.” Effectively addressing plant health risks is complicated by Canada’s variety of management approaches, its naturally vast and diverse landscape, involvement in internat. [...] “Cultivating Diversity details how an inclusive, connected, and responsive plant health system is key to addressing plant health risks in Canada.” The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) asked the CCA to examine the most significant current and emerging risks to plant health in Canada. [...] The CCA was founded by three independent organizations that represent some of the finest minds in Canada ― the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.