The Canadian Foodgrains Bank - a testimony to Canada's better instincts

Monday, March 5, 2012

Farmers working to get food to people without is the face of Canada's generosity and humanitarian instincts. But even it has to admit to a mea culpa

by BARRY WILSON

Canada's recent history of federal political instability and frequent election campaigns has been a mixed blessing for an itinerant reporter assigned to plot and analyze rural campaigns and issues across the country.

On the negative side, every second year seemed to require a month or more of gruelling schedules and weeks on end on the road away from home.

On the positive side, far outweighing the negative, it offered a regular wonderful opportunity to drive through great swathes of rural Canada from the East Coast to the Alberta mountains, talking to farmers and rural politicians about what was on their mind.

And during those long cross-country treks, there were constant points of familiarity to remind the traveler that, however much Canada's vast regions differ, there are nationally shared symbols as well – the comfort of familiar voices and programs offered by CBC at the same time in all time zones, endless highways named after Queen Elizabeth, knowing that the next double-double was somewhere just up the road and the frequent signs indicating that the produce from this farmer's field was being grown for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFB).

Across the country, the church-sponsored and farmer supported CFB is a presence, a regular reminder of Canadians' better instincts and farmers' frequent determination to rise above their own bottom-line challenges to do what they do best – grow food – to help the poor and hungry around the world.

The Ontario rural landscape dotted with CFB projects is a prime example. Last year, Ontario producers contributed more than $3.1 million in grain and cash, one third of the CFB's farmer donations.

It is the face of Canada's generosity and humanitarian instincts, farmers working to get food to people without. But it is, also, the face of humanitarian instincts that sometimes go off the rails.

In a remarkable example of a public mea culpa in late January, the Foodgrains Bank issued a statement acknowledging that, like other aid agencies, it failed last year to react quickly enough to a food crisis in East Africa.

Predictions of a crisis were available in mid-2010, but aid agencies largely failed to respond until a state of famine was declared in parts of Somalia last summer.  By then, thousands of deaths that could have been avoided were not.

"We all knew that a crisis was looming a year before it happened," CFB international program director Grant Hillier said. "We geared up as fast as we could, but I wish it could have been quicker."

From his downtown Winnipeg office, Hillier talks about the complicated nature of food aid – getting the food there when needed but not at a time when it will swamp local production and drive farmers out of business.

Then there is the issue of supporter response. The CFB receives government funding only when its supporters have contributed to a threshold, and contributions are often slow unless there are media images of the tragedy.

In Somalia, media images were slow in coming, in part because there was a civil war, media were not welcome and other news priorities called.

But none of that is an excuse, said Hillier. Lessons will be learned and changes made.

"I think we need to be honest with our donors and transparency is a good policy," he said. "If there are problems and we aren't transparent, it could hurt our credibility with our donors and weaken their support."

That kind of honesty may help keep the combines harvesting and farmers supporting, knowing that their charity-of-choice has nothing to hide. BF

Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.