The Hill

Since 1993, farm debt has been growing inexorably across Canada, and nowhere more than in Ontario, making debt servicing one of the fastest growing farm costs

by BARRY WILSON

In the darkest days of the early 1980s, when double-digit interest rates were the norm and grain prices were low because of the export subsidy wars, Ontario farmers carried a debt load of $5 billion.

Interest rates of 20 per cent and above drove many to bankruptcy or foreclosure in the first half of the decade. Resistance groups grew up to surround farms on foreclosure day to protect assets.

The Oct. 14 election left Liberals frozen out of rural areas. But despite the Tories’ embarrassment of riches, the new cabinet has no one with personal connections to Ontario agriculture

by BARRY WILSON

The rout of the Liberal Party in rural Ontario, which began with the 2004 election, was essentially completed in the Oct. 14 vote.

After the 2006 election, veteran MP Paul Steckle in Huron-Bruce proclaimed himself the last rural Liberal in an agricultural riding still standing west of the Quebec-New Brunswick border.

This autumn, Steckle stepped down after 15 years and his long-time aide, who had been working the riding for two years, was decisively defeated. The last agricultural rural riding was lost.

Both the Liberals and the Tories dropped their opposition to co-funding regional or provincial farm programs. And the 70 seats in rural Quebec and Ontario played a big part in that decision

by BARRY WILSON

It was a triumph of strong farmer lobbying. It also was the result of being in the right place at the right time.

This autumn, as federal politicians crisscrossed the country looking for votes, Liberals and Conservatives both embraced the idea that federal dollars should be used again to co-fund regional or provincial farm programs designed to reflect local conditions or needs.

The government’s handling of the fatal meat product recall was in sharp contrast to that of the Maple Leaf CEO, who was available. Contrite, precise and apologetic

by BARRY WILSON

The fatal meat product recall crisis that overtook Maple Leaf Foods and the Canadian food inspection and safety system in August represented a case of political controversy and events on the ground converging to create a political hurricane.

In the eye of the hurricane was Maple Leaf Foods CEO Michael McCain, who followed, and perhaps wrote, the book on good crisis communication.

He was available, contrite, precise and apologetic.

He outlined remedial plans and took full blame for the incident, deflecting criticism from the regulators.

So says a Minneapolis think-tank about the failure of governments to invest in agriculture, a view endorsed in unusually blunt language at the recent world food summit

by BARRY WILSON

In a world of international diplomatic language filled with nuance and weasel words, blunt talk and accusation are as rare as a McGuinty government minister agreeing that the Mike Harris government got at least a few things right.

So it was refreshing and flabbergasting to hear the chief bureaucrat for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) begin a June world food summit in Rome with some very blunt talk about why the world in summer 2008 is facing the spectre of rising food costs, growing hunger and the political instability it creates.

The government’s biofuel legislation looked like it was going to sail through Parliament. Then came headlines about a world food crisis, with biofuel pegged as one of the culprits

by BARRY WILSON

Even by the Ottawa standards of shifting political sands, the fall from grace of the government’s biofuel support and subsidy policy was breathtaking.

Not so long ago – let’s say the 2006 election campaign – all political parties were bully on biofuel as an environmental policy.

That’s the verdict of producers on the new set of national farm programs announced on April 1. ‘To farmers,’ said one, ‘it all looks like the same old thing but less’

by BARRY WILSON

The April 1 launch of the much-hyped next generation of national farm programs was a low-key, modest affair. And, indeed, there was much to be modest about.

The irritatingly named Growing Forward, with its too-cute-by-half component programs AgriStability, AgriInvest, AgriInsurance and AgriRecovery, was supposed to be a new and improved version of the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization Program (CAIS), the reintroduction of the Net Income Stabilization Account (NISA), an expanded crop insurance program to include livestock and a new disaster program.

While overall provincial spending has increased 70 per cent since 2002, expenditure in agricultural research has actually fallen. Yet it is essential to Ontario’s economy and to an affordable, safe and abundant food supply

by JIM DALRYMPLE

The recent Ontario budget indicates little commitment to agriculture and food research or to the importance of the agriculture and food industry to the economy.

by BARRY WILSON

Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Geri Kamenz knew he was the skunk at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) garden party in late February when he praised federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz after a controversial speech.

The minister was saying what Ontario farmers want to hear, said the Ontario farm leader. He is delivering the goods. But most of Kamenz’ CFA comrades had a very different, more hostile view of Ritz and his performance at the late February CFA annual meeting.

The federal minister had just delivered a speech to the national farm lobby that was blunt, unusually partisan and, on the issue of the Canadian Wheat Board, dismissive of the relevance of the CFA.

It is one thing to rage at the unfairness of their arguments. But it is also necessary to prove them wrong

by BARRY WILSON

Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen had it exactly right.

He began a letter to the National Post in late January with the opening line: “I continue to be absolutely mystified by the ongoing crusade of the National Post and its columnists against Canadian farmers and our national agriculture industry.”

He said that national columnists will “pounce on any factoid and torture any statistic to paint an entire industry as irrelevant and worthless.”