Gerry Ritz says ag research funds have increased 15 per cent since 1994. His critics say public funding of agriculture and food research in Canada has fallen quite sharply. Who’s right?
by BARRY WILSON
In the history of the bizarre debate about the level of agricultural research funding now compared to then (pick your date), no day stands out more starkly than May 3, 2012.
On that day, a letter from agriculture minister Gerry Ritz was published in a newspaper (albeit written several weeks before) which asserted that Conservative spending on agricultural research in fiscal year 2010-11 was 15 per cent higher in real terms than it had been in 1994.