March 6th, 2005
I had the pleasure of joining the 7,000 farmers at Queen’s Park on Wednesday
March 2nd, 2005. The bus ride of 5 hours each way was worth the opportunity
to understand the many facets of the crisis in contemporary agriculture in
Ontario and Canada.
On one hand, there were loud demands for immediate actions to address the
current crisis: direct financial support comparable to Quebec, the USA and
Europe, delays or reduction in the regulatory load, withdrawal of trade
embargoes. People could clearly grasp the short-term problems and solutions,
as demonstrated by the reading material, the rhetoric of the speakers, the
cheers of the crowd, and the discussions on the bus.
There were also great statements from the podium about long term solutions,
a hand up instead of a hand out, the future of agriculture, long term
sustainability, systemic changes, the priority of food in our survival and
quality of life, feeding Canadians first, the need to connect the grower and
the eater, etc... Unfortunately, the participants usually came up short on
specific long-term solutions. Quite often, a question about long-term
direction was often answered with the usual short-term band-aids.
I fear that farmers either do not grasp the long-term dilemma or refuse to
imagine the significant changes required to make agriculture sustainable.
That is quite understandable since systemic changes are very uncomfortable
for the current paradigm in agriculture.
Let us first understand that the current income crisis is not a sudden event
caused by a border closure or a crop surplus or a subsidy disparity. The
trend has been clear for many decades as mechanization, high energy inputs,
globalization and consolidation have eaten away at margins. Foreign trade
policies have then amplified the problem.
I will leave the
short-term debate to current governments. Rather, let me focus on a vision
for agriculture in 10 years, one that a progressive government could
implement.
Above all, the world has a limited supply of fossil fuels and we will run
out of cheap energy. The rising cost of energy will make long distance
transportation and fossil fertilizers unaffordable and uncompetitive with
low input and organic agriculture. Cheap foreign commodities will not longer
afford the high cost of transportation to flood the Canadian market. The US
farm subsidies will be a victim of the crushing US debt.
Farmers will walk away from the disenfranchisement of globalization and the
export-import commodity business. We will feed Canadians first with a rich
and varied offering to satisfy our culinary and cultural diversity. Local
economies will flourish. Farmers will cut out the middleman and re-connect
with consumers through farm stands, farmers markets, and home delivery.
Miniaturization will make on-farm or community processing the norm.
The average age of farmers will drop considerably. The current generation of
so-called “production farmers” will have retired, to be replaced with a
generation of new and second-career farmers focused on food, health, and
lifestyle. Marketing systems will evolve to reduce the capital cost barrier,
open the bottom to entry-level farmers, allow for direct marketing,
diversify and distribute production on mixed family-scale farms. Farm credit
organizations will facilitate start-up farms, small acreages, local
processing, and farmer coops.
I see farmers doubling their political clout by simply doubling their
numbers from 2% to 4% of voters. I can read the headline in this paper in
2015: “Ontario registers its 100,000th farmer!” Farmers will also have
become political and will ensure their own direct impact on their urban
friends, thanks to direct contact thru direct marketing.
But that also means a 50% reduction in the average farm size. History will
have swallowed the industrial scale commodity farm serving the export
market. The next generation farm will be more labour intensive, as farmers
re-connect with their consumers and respond with organic food, high value
crops, fresh produce, wool and fibers, on-farm processing, and pastured
livestock.
We may think that Ontario agriculture today is safe, nutritious and
ecological. But health conscious consumers and budget sensitive governments
have a much more demanding definition of sustainability for our farms, our
ecology and our health. As provincial health care budgets overtake all other
departments, we will undertake a great paradigm shift towards greater
nutrition, raw food, less meat and more produce, and local production and
consumption.
By the way, our farms will be profitable through the price of food, not
through subsidies to farms, energy, or industry. The food portion of our
disposable income will rise from 10% to 15% with a corresponding decrease in
taxes as we reduce subsidies, transportation infrastructures and sick care
costs. We will have rediscovered the culture of agriculture, the pride and
appreciation of farming, and the ecological value of land stewardship.
Thank you.
Tom Manley