Hey Chatham-Kent Farmers: What’s All the Fuss About?
Last Monday the office of the provincial minister of agriculture Leona Dombrowsky received a written bomb threat. She also was quoted in the Toronto Star as saying there have been threats to blockade her family home. What’s up with this? Are we talking about Ontario here?
For those of you a long way away from Ontario farms this must seem a bit out of the twilight zone. Aren’t we supposed to be eating the food our neigbours grow? Whatever happened to good things grow in Ontario? Are the peasants about to storm the palace?
For some of you this must seem very confusing. As you pass Chatham-Kent farms you notice things you might never have. An idyllic lifestyle might be one of them. A big pickup might be another. Rural life from an urban perspective looks pretty good.
Big tractors have radios, air conditioning, and now even automated steering. How can life seem so bad? Big combines and tomato harvesters sweep the harvest landscape like they are floating on air. What’s up with this? It would seem to many non-farm citizens’ farmers have it pretty good. So why are we seeing in the winter of 2006 so much farm militancy? How do these farmers who demand money from government justify their demands?
These are all legitimate questions. For many of you it just doesn’t add up. However, in the farm community of Chatham-Kent this all makes sense. The question is how do we make sense of it all?
As many of you know I’ve been asked to MC and speak at three different farm rallies this past winter. The first one was in Wallaceburg on December 14th, the second in Guelph on February 14th and the third February 21st in Ottawa. I’ve also been invited to MC and speak on April 5th back in Ottawa. Yes, it is a long and winding road. So what is all the fuss about?
As my East West sidekick Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque would say, “its all based on history.” Somewhere in the history of Ontario we find ourselves where we are. Many Ontario farmers find themselves disenfranchised from the profits of the food system. While corporations and governments get rich on our food, consumers enjoy a cheap and plentiful food supply. Governments maintain this through trade policies, which make sure food is cheap and plentiful. The problem is farmers being historical price takers in our economy find it very difficult to keep going with lower and lower farm gate prices.
Historically governments both provincial and federal have responded to this by creating an “agricultural safety net”. What this consisted of were a series of income stabilization and disaster relief policies, which would infuse capital into the agricultural economy when prices turned south. It wasn’t perfect but for many years it worked. It’s how growers of corn, wheat and soybeans built their businesses through the years.
The situation grew more complicated when our American friends started heavily subsidizing the production of grain. It was their attempt to bankrupt emerging agricultural giants like Brazil. However, with the free movement of grain across the Canada US border, this caused many tensions. This highly subsidized US grain coming into Ontario’s ethanol plants was surely one of them.
The blow that broke the dike was when the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Dalton McGuinty eliminated the “agricultural safety net.” It was a bizarre move, one I’ll never understand. So when grain futures plummeted and the loonie rose, cash grain prices went to levels which cannot sustain a viable grain and oilseed sector.
The push has been to get some type of “agricultural safety net policy ” back from government. In the 2006 election Stephen Harper promised its return. Many farmers look at it as a “trade off” for a continual cheap food supply for Canadian consumers. Some look at it as just good agricultural economics. Some look at it as the way things should be. Canadian food production should be valued in this country.
Is there more to it? You bet there is. Dairy, poultry and eggs are very stable sectors of the agricultural economy. Big corporations limit choice between the farm gate and consumers dinner table. Yes, there is a lot more to it. Telling you the whole story is akin to writing “War and Peace.”
I have lived in societies where food isn’t plentiful and it is certainly not always safe to eat. In Canada we have none of that. However, at the end of the day, perception is reality. The challenge for those involved is to get it right. The problem might be the cat was let out of the bag a long time ago.