Photo Credit: Kevin Pluc The federal government recently pulled out of an important global treaty: the UN Convention to Combat Desertification . It’s aimed at fighting drought, a problem that affects almost 30 per cent of Earth’s land surface and threatens the well-being of more than a billion people worldwide, including in our Prairie provinces. Every year, the cumulative effects of overgrazing, over-cultivation, deforestation, poor irrigation and increasing extreme weather events – including those that cause drought – permanently degrade close to 10 million hectares of land. This has led to a creeping loss of places where food can easily be grown.
