Spreading the Word: Kristjan Hebert Highlights Saskatchewan at COP 28

By Jamie Shanks, Communications Branch, Regina

When Kristjan Hebert touched down in Dubai last fall for the United Nations’ Conference of Parties (COP) 28, the foreign dignitaries he met were pleasantly surprised by what he had to say about Saskatchewan agriculture.

They discovered Hebert was someone who didn’t just talk about farming. Hebert is a farmer— and a prominent Saskatchewan producer, blogger and agriculture industry advocate. Among other things, he’s the driving force behind Hebert Grain Ventures, a 40,000-acre grain and oilseed operation headquartered in Moosomin.

He was more than happy to enlighten people at COP 28 about Saskatchewan, which meant starting with the absolute basics.

“The interesting part was that nobody knew how to pronounce it,” Hebert says.

“By the time you were done talking to them, they realized how many food items their country probably bought from our province.”

Hebert is, in that sense, a man with a mission. Long before the word sustainable entered the current conversation about agriculture, the guiding principle of his operation and others like it was what’s referred to as a farm legacy statement. It simply establishes the comprehensive goal of leaving one’s land, financials, the community and the industry in a better state for each generation.

“That really is my definition of sustainability,” he says. “I think it’s always important to talk about all four of those legs on the sustainability stool.”

At the same time, he feels the province’s agriculture industry has, until recently, fallen short in terms of assertively marketing itself to the nation and beyond as a model for best practices. Now, however, Saskatchewan has a clear opportunity to take the initiative and be a decisive, credible voice of leadership in this global conversation, rather than leaving the job to others. (The title of one of Hebert’s recent blog posts: “Hey Canada, this isn’t the time to be modest”.) Recent research—such as results published by the Global Institute for Food Security illustrating that Saskatchewan growers have a world-leading carbon footprint in growing major crops and statistics showing the province may well lead the world in its use of no-till acres—backs this up.

COP 28 was a lesson in how to implement this role, especially with food and agriculture becoming an increasingly important topic there. “But at the same time, you walk into the next building and I’ve got someone trying to sell me an electric yacht,” Hebert says.

“I think that might affect 0.1 per cent of the population, and I sure don’t want the same people who think electric yachts are important making decisions when it comes to food and agriculture.”

Hebert feels the days of Saskatchewan letting someone else define the terms or control the conversation on things like regenerative or sustainable agriculture could be over - if we choose. As a self-described “climate realist” with a decidedly global perspective, he feels the choice is a clear one.

“Right now, if the world wants to lower emissions and have the best climate-smart commodities in the world, then they should buy everything from Saskatchewan—and Saskatchewan should not only export its commodities, but we should also export the knowledge we’ve had for 20 or 30 years to farmers around the world to help them get to where we are on some of these practices.”

Check out Hebert’s blog to find out more.