Why is grazing management being overlooked in climate adaptation policy?

In 2018, two studies were conducted by Canada’s Parliament on the connections between climate change and agriculture. Links between grazing management and climate change adaptation and mitigation are included in the testimonies gathered during these studies but the resulting final reports are silent on the topic. Analysis of 112 parliamentary files revealed insights on (1) the knowledge about grazing management that was omitted from the two final reports, (2) the social contexts that informed the processes of hearing testimonies and developing the reports, and (3) the underlying ideologies and normative assumptions reflected in these studies. Overall, the current state of policy regarding climate change and agriculture emphasizes technical, scientific, and expensive solutions, and as a result, the benefits of grazing management are overlooked. We argue transformations toward sustainable, climate adaptive agriculture require an ongoing examination of how political structures, knowledge hierarchies, and underlying ideologies inform and narrow policy outcomes.