Farmers obtain levy exemption

Monday, June 7, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Farmers with a Farm Business Registration number will be exempted from a special waste levy being placed on bagged fertilizer starting July 1.

Mark Wales, Ontario Federation of Agriculture vice president, says growers have to show their number when they’re buying the fertilizer to get the levy exemption. For farmers, “this is a good win.”

The levy would have cost farmers about $20 million a year in inputs, a Federation press release states. The Ontario Agri-Business Association estimates Ontario farmers buy about 30,000 tonnes of fertilizer annually in packages of 30 kilograms or less.

Most grain and oilseed producers buy their fertilizer in bulk form so the proposal wouldn’t impact them. But it would have an effect on horticultural growers, who buy nutrients and micro-nutrients in small packages like 10 kgs, Wales explains. The Federation opposed the levy because farmers don’t direct fertilizer to the waste stream.

“None of us puts a pound of fertilizer out with the garbage,” he says. “It’s just against the nature of farming. You just don’t waste fertilizer, ever.”

The Environment Ministry proposed charging the special levy to cover the cost of collecting unused fertilizer as a special waste.

Craig Hunter, minor use coordinator and food safety adviser with the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association, says when ministry officials initially talked about the fee they suggested a charge of 41 cents a kilogram. “If you’re a broccoli grower that would be over $600 a hectare in fees on your fertilizer if you use bagged fertilizer.”

Environment Minister John Gerretsen says in a letter to Better Farming that the Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste program is based on the principle that the manufacturer or first importer is responsible for the waste from products they introduce into the marketplace. The program was established to manage a range of products appearing in the waste stream, such as unused fertilizer.

Stewardship Ontario, an industry waste and recycling funding organization, operates the program. It collects fees from fertilizer manufacturers who manufacture products in packages of 30 kg or less to pay for the costs of managing fertilizers through the program.

Stewardship Ontario reached an agreement with the Federation, the horticultural farmers’ association and the Ontario Agri-Business Association that would exempt farmers from having the levy applied to their purchase when they show their registration card at point-of-sale. BF