Fostering markets for local food and appropriate regulations are Green Party goals

Thursday, June 5, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

Ensuring farmers have markets in place along with rules and regulations to maintain profitability are the key issues for producers in this election campaign, says Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner.

“We would address that in a variety of ways,” he says, noting “first of all we’re very strong supporters of the local food movement and would insist that public institutions buy a certain percentage of Ontario food to support our farmers.”

Schreiner, who grew up on a farm, was an early champion of the local food movement. He is running as a candidate in Guelph. So far, the party hasn’t had any candidates elected to Queen’s Park.

The Green Party also supports regulatory reforms to remove barriers and restrictions for farmers doing on-farm value-added processing “so they can better maximize margins in their farm operations,” he says.

Schreiner says they also support more innovation along with research and development for farm bio-based products, such as plastics made from corn, “so we can start expanding (domestic and global) markets for farmers.”

The Green Party favours raising the business risk management program cap, currently set at $100 million a year, to the $175 million a year requested by the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition. The party is also in favour of the coalition’s proposal the cap be increased by $25 million a year for three years to reach the $175 million target.

About escalating hydro costs, Schreiner says the best solution to counter rising energy prices is to “provide support for farmers, homeowners and small businesses to invest in energy-efficient retrofits and energy efficient machinery so they can save money by saving energy.”

Schreiner says he has talked to several dairy and horticulture farmers with post-harvest handling facilities that have been able to invest in more energy efficient equipment “to help reduce their rising energy prices.”

Helping people invest in energy efficient building retrofits and equipment is the Green Party’s top priority. The support would be in the form of no-interest loans as well as a grant program people can apply for, modeled after the previous Home Energy Savings program.

The party is also a strong advocate of buying lower-cost water-generated power from Quebec “as a way to provide supply at a lower price,” he notes.

The Green Party also supports revamping the Green Energy program to require local ownership so farmers can actually have equity in green energy projects, such as wind ventures “where the Liberals have put corporate interests ahead of community and local benefits,” he says.

In the Green Party platform, the party says it will in the next session of the legislature demand that the government put food and water first by protecting farmland and water. They’ll introduce legislation to permanently protect Ontario’s Class 1 farmland and source water regions.

Ontario is losing 356 acres of farmland a day – an area the size of Toronto every year, it says in the Green Party platform. In a recent press release, Schreiner challenged other leaders to sign the “Food and Water First” pledge as he has done. Food and Water First defines itself on its website as a “movement” of urban and rural citizens “dedicated to protecting Ontario's Class 1 farmland and source water regions.”

Schreiner says he feels “it’s essential that we protect the asset base of our farm and food economy.”

Investment in more and better infrastructure for rural communities is also needed. For example, “while we probably can’t put natural gas infrastructure in every corner of the province, we certainly can build better infrastructure in rural communities,” he says, noting infrastructure improvements can also apply to drainage, irrigation “and making sure our rural roads are farmer-friendly so we have the public infrastructure in place to support our farming sector.”

The Green Party also favours:

• Ending special deals and loopholes, such as the ministerial order that allows developers to build on natural heritage, source water sites and prime farmland.
• Banning the use of neonicotinoid pesticides until peer reviewed research can definitively determine they do not harm bees.
• Rewarding farmers for their good stewardship practices and expanding the Alternative Land Use Services program that pays farmers for environmental goods and services. BF