Groups launch campaign to protest Ontario's proposed neonic controls

Sunday, February 8, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Six Ontario farm groups supported by five agricultural industry associations have spent nearly $350,000 on full-page newspaper letters in major newspapers across the province giving Ontarians and politicians their take on bee health matters.

The groups placed the letters in major newspapers across Ontario last week, including twice in The Globe and Mail, “to let the public and the politicians know that the bee industry isn’t in the dire straits that some claim it to be,” says Grain Farmers of Ontario CEO Barry Senft. “In fact, there’s some positive things going on as far as honey production, bee numbers etc. and that seemed to be lost in the discussion over the last number of months.”

The “Open Letter to Ontarians” went in major newspapers across Ontario, such as the Windsor Star, Toronto Star, National Post, Guelph Mercury, London Free Press and the Kingston-Whig Standard. The same letter went in all the papers including both the Sat. Jan. 31 and Wed., Feb. 4 editions of The Globe and Mail.

The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association issued a press release Feb. 2 calling the farm groups’ letter misleading.

President Tibor Szabo says the beekeepers’ group issued the release because “we don’t have a million dollar budget to do advertising and the information they put out is not accurate. It’s really important people know the facts. We don’t really have money on our side, we just have the truth on our side.”

Grain Farmers and other farm groups are opposed to the provincial government’s proposal announced in November 2014 to implement an 80 per cent cut to the number of corn and soybean acres grown with neonicotinoid-treated seed by 2017. Regulations are to be in place by July.

Grain Farmers is working on developing an alternative proposal and Senft says they will be releasing the details of that later this month.

Debra Conlon, government relations consultant with Grain Farmers, says the farm groups’ letter was put in 14 newspapers located primarily in southwestern Ontario.

Senft says the agricultural industry participants to the letter campaign contributed money and in-kind support. “Not everybody contributed equally,” he says. The supporters listed at the bottom of the letter are: CropLife Canada, the Ontario Agri-Business Association, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the Canadian Seed Trade Association and the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers. In addition to Grain Farmers, the farm group participants are: Ontario Canola Growers Association, Farm & Food Care Ontario, Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, Ontario Bean Growers and Seed Corn Growers of Ontario.

Asked how much money Grain Farmers contributed, Senft says “it was next to nothing. It was more the “in-kind support that we worked on the ad.”

Conlon noted that producer check-off dollars weren’t used for the letter as Grain Farmers’ contribution was mostly the in-kind support.

A Toronto Star article last week said that CropLife Canada had financed the advertisements. Erin O’Hara, senior communications officer of the organization that represents agricultural crop control products, said in an email today that the media placements were funded by the agricultural industry.

Senft says the letters were placed in the papers to try and get the public and Ontario government politicians “to look at the other side of the equation in that the bee industry isn’t in the dire straits that some have described it to be.”

As for letter’s impact, he says “we’re hopeful that at the end of the day when the government goes to put in regulations they look at all things and all comments that have been made through the Environmental Bill of Rights discussion and the consultations. We’re hopeful the government is going to come to the conclusion the proposals they are putting in place don’t target what they’re trying to do.”

Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal says in an email provided by his senior press adviser “in order to support a healthy pollinator population, Ontario is taking a balanced, precautionary approach.”

To implement “a practical, realistic plan our government consulted widely on this issue. We received over 52,000 written submissions and more than 400 people attended consultation sessions. We are currently reviewing this feedback,” he says.

Leal says he’ll continue advocating for an open, inclusive “collaboration as we work to strengthen pollinator health and support Ontario’s growing agriculture and agri-food sector.”

John Kelly, executive vice president of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, says “we signed on to the Farm Action Now organization” and the association’s participation in the newspaper letter campaign is consistent with that.

“What we’re really trying to do is get as much balanced and credible information out there so it’s understood what the issues are that we’re facing. And we’re supporting our agricultural commodity partners as well,” he says.

Erin Morgan, general manager of the Ontario Bean Growers, says they too are part of the Farm Action Now group. “We support science-based regulations and we also support any educational efforts that would lead to that end.”

Morgan says “we’re very much in support of working with government and beekeepers in finding a solution that works for everyone in Ontario.”

The purpose of the newspaper letter “is to educate Ontarians that there is another side to the story and I think the hope is also to show the farm groups are very willing to work on a solution that benefits everybody,” she says. “Nobody wants to see bee mortality increase.”

Craig Reid, vice president of the Ontario Canola Growers Association, says canola growers are big users of neonicotinoids as seed treatments. “We felt it was in our best interests to support this campaign where we’re trying to share the facts.”

Reid, who is also chair of Farm Action Now, says for people who already have their mind made up the letter has no impact but “like any other media campaign what you’re aiming for is the large majority of people in the middle that don’t have a strong opinion.”

Reid adds that “at the very least it would make people stop and think and maybe do a little bit of their own digging into the subject.”

Jeff Wilson, chair of the Seed Corn Growers of Ontario, says they participated in the campaign “because we wanted to make sure the urban population was getting balanced information. We feel that some of the coverage we got from the meetings the government held in December (2014) and early January was focused on the radical opinions. The agricultural opinions, which we feel are based on good science, weren’t getting out to the right people.”

A representative from Farm & Food Care Ontario couldn’t be reached for comment. BF