Living Lab - Ontario: Collaborating towards sustainable farming (Video)

Video Transcript

Text: Some of this footage was recorded prior to the Government of Canada's physical distancing guidelines. Canadians are encouraged to continue to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines. Living Labs is all about bringing farmers and scientists together… while staying safely six feet apart.

[Up-beat rhythmic music begins playing in the background.]

Text: Living Lab – Ontario, Collaborating towards sustainable farming

Natalie Feisthauer: The primary focus of the Living Labs Ontario initiative is, in a nutshell, soil health and water quality.

[Lake Erie marshlands.]

Text: Natalie Feisthauer: Soil and Nutrient Management Specialist and Living Lab – Ontario Site Coordinator, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Natalie Feisthauer: Lake Erie has been experiencing increasingly frequent and severe harmful nuisance algal blooms.

[Algae pools in a river.]

A lot of that is coming from the land as a result of human activities.

[Aerial view of houses along water channels.]

Healthy soil acts like a sponge…

[A close up of a clump of soil and its various roots.]

…and keeps the soil and the nutrients on the farm fields…

[A stream runs through a forest.]

…and not washing off into streams and eventually down into Lake Erie.

[Cows grazing in pasture.]

We want to see if changes at the farm is translating to changes…

[Lake Erie shown on map.]

…at the watershed scale.

[Transition music]

Text: Laurent "Woody" Van Arkel: Participating Living Lab – Ontario farmer

Laurent "Woody" Van Arkel: So my farm operation…

[Satellite map of Dresden, Southern Ontario.]

…is just outside the town of Dresden in Southern Ontario.

[Laurent "Woody" standing out in the field, next to his tractor, holding his soil grass root.]

The Living Labs project that I'm involved with…

[Farmer sowing seeds with tractor.]

…that is to keep a living root system…

[Time-lapse of the sky.]

…365 days a year.

[Soil samples are collected from the fields.]

With the Living Labs, I hope I can measure some of these benefits, have scientists come out and take the samples. That way I can measure whether I am on the right track or do we need to change it.

[Transition music]

Text: Natalie Feisthauer: Soil and Nutrient Management Specialist and Living Lab – Ontario Site Coordinator, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

[Tractor out on the field.]

Natalie Feisthauer: The entire premise of living labs is to get researchers…

[Scientist observing samples collected in sample tubes.]

…together with farmers…

[Farmer mowing field with tractor.]

…on their farms on the ground in action.

[A group of people collect stems of wheat.]

So they are collaboratively working on finding solutions to the issues.

[A row of workers harvest corn.]

Text: Laurent "Woody" Van Arkel: Participating Living Lab – Ontario farmer

[Two producers stand together in a soy field.]

Laurent "Woody" Van Arkel: I'm excited about that ability to interact with and…

[Two men approaching cows in a pasture.]

[Individual observing a crop and the soil with their hand.]

…have that discussion with somebody else other than a farmer. Somebody that's interested in soil health…

[A scientist working in the lab.]

…from an academic side.

[Transition music]

[Aerial view of multiple farming fields.]

Laurent "Woody" Van Arkel: I really hope that when I do finally stop farming…

[Aerial view closing in on a single farm.]

…that the farms I have are in much better shape than…

[Tall crops blow in the wind.]

…when I started 30 years ago.

[Transition music]

Text: Find out more: agr.gc.ca/livinglab

[Cut to the Canada wordmark. The rhythmic, upbeat music fades out.]