Time for Ottawa, farmers to grow better bonds.
We have to end the us vs. them dynamic
Farmers and Ottawa need to have a better relationship. The country deserves it.
Among the agricultural community, at least the individuals I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with in Western Canada, the difference between an initiative, campaign or policy that is driven by farmers and one that is not is great.
It’s the first question a farmer will ask: do you have any ag experience? Farming is a difficult, complex enterprise that requires expertise in accounting, politics, people management, monitoring and reacting to the markets and much, much more. They have these skills because they have to have these skills. Farmers want those with the power to affect their operations to understand what it is they do.
Growers are used to lawmakers without agriculture experience or knowledge deciding the fate of Canadian farms. And this same group knows how ineffective and out of touch the resulting policies can be.
On Manitoban soil, good, trusting relationships breed effective and fair laws, and if I were a betting man, I’d say this applies across the country and abroad.
Imagine if Ottawa would promote sound science surrounding GMOs with the same fervour the EU opposes it? Imagine if Ottawa knew how a farm operated before it released a crippling slate of proposed incometax reforms? Imagine if it all looked a little different, where the moves that are made amount to more than mere theatrics and posturing?
Farmers would be less defensive. They/ we wouldn’t feel such a strong compunction to oppose what comes out of our city centres.
The arena is us vs. them, and the non- farming, nonagriculture public is the audience, believing that the feuds taking place in front of them are nothing more than the whining of a group that loves to complain about laws that limit their profits.
In one sense, I can’t argue. Which group wouldn’t want to get rid of impediments to the free market? But it’s more than that. Farmers lobby for better agronomy, better research programs, and they desperately want the trust of the public.
If Ottawa had an intimate understanding of the kinds of pressures a farm faces and the kinds of considerations it makes on a regular basis, the carbon tax laws threatening to be implemented would hopefully look different than they do now.
Instead, farmer groups the country over are gathering in the small corners of their communities drumming up responses to these laws that, when enacted, would raise a farm’s input costs and potentially further erode already tight profit margins.
Farmers are price takers and are unable to pass higher, say, fertilizer prices onto their buyers.
Some of the positions being formed on issues such as carbon tax are extreme, aimed at getting the attention of the political masters, who seems ready to react inkind.
At times, it seems this is the tableau of agriculture’s status with government. But it needn’t be this way.
However it may look, it’s worth hoping and fighting for a better relationship — one that transcends the leanings of the part that’s in power. It starts with education.
I’m a broken record on this point, but I’ve been an engaged human long enough to know that success on this file will only come with honesty, clarity and repetition.
Us farmers may seem wild and unwieldy at times, but trust me, we’re not. Do that and I’ ll trust that the other side is interested in more than just theatrics.