“Are you tired?”  “Or are you just tired of being sick and tired?”  That was one of my lines I used to raise the rancor within the 10,000 farmer souls in front of me on April 5th, 2006 in front of Canada’s Parliament buildings.  It was a rough time back in those days.  Anything I could give farmers to help them express their agricultural policy outrage was deemed appropriate.

Of course, how about if I said, “Well guys, you might as well head home.  Something called the “ethanol gold rush” is about to happen and you’ll enjoy prices unheard of in the near future.”  Surely I would have been booed off the stage.  In the vacuum of what was the worst Canadian agricultural policy dearth in years, nobody would have believed it.

Of course if you have hogs or cattle you might say let’s get back there.  It’s no secret some Canadian hog and cattle producers might harken back to that time as days of yore.  It’s no secret at the present time the whole Canadian livestock sector is being compromised.  A solid Canadian agricultural policy is needed to sustain them now and in the future.

For some of you, reading about Canadian agricultural policy is like watching paint dry.  However, its pretty clear at least in Eastern Canada when it gets bad enough farmers know how to organize and fight for what they believe.  It might get messy sometimes, like the current Ontario train wreck concerning the MOU, but guys in Ontario and especially Quebec know how to forge agricultural policy.

It brings me to this.  I could of written another feature about prices, basis, food demand and biofuel.  However, how about going back to that day in 2006.  Answer me this question.  How has the Canadian agricultural policy world changed since that day and does it need another complete re-jig in the world of 2008-grain prices?

Case in point is my 2006 CAIS application.  I got it back today. (January 31, 2008)  For those first time readers of this column I’m serious.  I can’t even remember what I planted in 2006, but our government is just now getting around to telling me they can’t help me.  The key line was, “your operation did not generate a program benefit for this program year.”  It’s so stupid.  CAIS for me and a lot of other Canadian farmers has never worked and never will.

For hog and cattle producers it might be different.  However, in many ways they will be suffering from the same CAIS flu that inflicted grain and oilseed producers.  Stabilizing them at BSE levels is a road to nowhere.

When I write about present and future agricultural policy I like to think of what Microsoft’s Bill Walton used to say.  At one time Microsoft’s corporate motto was, “Where do you want to go today?”  That’s what I say to Canadian farmers.  “Where do you want Canadian Agriculture to go today?”  Simply put, that’s what Canadian agricultural policy is supposed to do.  Our Canadian supply managed sector is a shining example of agricultural policy, which works.

So is Canadian farm policy working for the rest of us in 2008?  Does it embrace the American ethanol gold rush?  Does it address the need for structural change in the delivery vehicle (CAIS), which is so reviled?  Do the Conservatives have a clue about it anymore than the old Liberal governments did?  Or if you really think about it, is it more like it’s the day after the big farm rally in Ottawa?

If you picked the day after in Ottawa, that’s where I sit.  Yes, there have been some advances like RMP in Ontario and a few biofuel initiatives.  Nonetheless, CAIS is still here.  It might be called Agristability, but it’s more akin to Agri-shake-ability.  In no way does it position Canadian farmers to thrive.  It’s more like a bureaucratic black hole, which will surely swallow more than one Conservative MP next time around.

It’s an interesting paradigm because our American friends do agricultural policy in spades.  Yes, it might be controversial but their government embraces American farmers.  Whether it’s the 2007 US Energy Bill which strengthens biofuel into the future or the 2007 US Farm Bill, the American farmer is set.  That is, set to drive many Canadian farmers into the ground if we don’t watch it.  All the Canadian hogs and cattle being fed in US barns are testament to that.

What’s this mean?  Take it from me.  I’ve seen it many times.  When times are good in Canadian agriculture, farmers are apathetic about their agricultural policy.  That’s when governments win.  That’s when good agricultural support programs are usually cut.  I’ve seen it many times.  The squeaky wheel is turning with grease.  Nobody seems to care.

The truth is while our American friends are putting together an agricultural policy for the ages, Canadian agricultural policy is being completely ignored and beaten down with the same misguided vision, which put 10,000 farmers on Parliament Hill in 2006.  Yes, Rome is burning my friends.  If that doesn’t change soon, something tells me I’ll see everybody back on that same hill on some cold April day in the future.