Farm groups back Wilkinson bid
BY JOHN MUGGERIDGE
It's a long way for a farm boy from Lambton county, but Belle Vallee cattleman-cropper Jack Wilkinson is taking a run at the leadership of the world's farm lobby.Wilkinson, 46, was buoyed by news late April that the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and other commodity groups were contributing to a war chest to help him run his campaign for president of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) at elections in Manila, Philippines, June 2.
Wilkinson, currently president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, says that as president of the Paris-based group representing the world's farmers he would be in a position to keep farm interests in the forefront at critical World Trade Organization talks beginning next year in Geneva.
"People want a Canadian in there, and I take it as a compliment that they think I'm a reasonable candidate," says Wilkinson, a former OFA vice-president known for his strong farm activism.
Following in the footsteps of other Canadians to lead IFAP, Glen Flaten in the 1980s, and Charlie Munro in the 1970s, Wilkinson says he hopes to build on Canada's "privileged" position with IFAP, taking a more active role on issues: "What works in Canada works internationally. We're used to having to find that compromise."
IFAP does not pay salary and expenses during the two-year term, so candidates must have financial backing from farm and commodity organizations in their own country. Wilkinson would need $220,000 annually during the two-year term.
Last month the OFA pledged $20,000 annually to the Wilkinson campaign, bringing total CFA membership contributions to $120,000 per year. Several CFA membership organizations have contributed $15,000 to the cause, including the Union des producteurs agricoles, Que-bec's general farm organization, which will also send five delegates to the Manila conference to help gather votes for Wilkinson. Canada, represented by Wilkinson, will have one vote in the election. Delegates will lobby other countries to support the Wilkinson bid.
The OFA originally proposed to send two delegates to the conference, but later decided to approve funding for four delegates. Directors concluded that a Canadian heading the IFAP would increase Canada's influence during trade talks. It will cost the OFA $18,000 to send the four delegates to Manila for 10 days.
"Jack likely has a good shot at it," said OFA president Ed Segsworth, adding Wilkinson's challengers are expected to come from France, Nether-lands and the U.S. "The Europeans hate the Americans and the Americans hate the Europeans. Jack could come right up the middle."
Wilkinson, currently an IFAP vice-president, has no illusions of performing miracles at WTO, where the Europeans are expected to take a stand on protecting their markets. But he sees a "host" of non-tariff trade barriers, including phytosanitary, that are "very dangerous for Canadian producers....The gap is widening in being able to trade freely and fairly."
If his IFAP bid is successful, he'll resign as CFA president; a successor will be chosen at the CFA semi-annual meeting in Fredericton. - With files from Bernard Tobin
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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A pre-budget Taste of Ontario
A who's who of the farm community traveled to Queen's Park last month to showcase the province's agriculture industry at the Taste of Ontario. The annual pre-provincial-budget gathering was a last chance for farmers to lobby politicians for a renewed public commitment to agriculture. Ontario Commodity Council chairman Wayne Newman (left) and Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Ed Segsworth (right) lobbied Agriculture Minister Noble Villeneuve and other members of the government to increase funding for core agriculture programs, including research, extension and safety nets. Villeneuve told farmers that his government has heard their call to reinvest in agriculture and assured that the request would not fall on deaf ears. Finance Minister Ernie Eves will present his budget to the Legislature May 5.
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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Packers must pay, says report
Ontario pork producers are as efficient as any in the world, according to a report released to pork board directors last month. However, "An assessment of the competitiveness of the Ontario Pork Industry," by Quebec's Laval University-based Groupe de Recherche en Economie et Politique Agricoles (GREPA), echoed a familiar producer refrain."It's hard to understand why slaughterhouses are not willing to pay more to obtain hogs, thus allowing them to operate on two shifts and export to lucrative markets," the report challenges.
The report also questions a pork industry task force recommendation that Ontario Pork relinquish its single desk selling powers. "It might be a mistake to move to a totally decentralized system," it concludes.
The new report "did show that we were $1.50 to $2 a hundred weight higher than the U.S. average," says Ontario Pork chairman Will Nap. However, he notes that large North Carolina producers who assemble large volumes of narrow weight range pigs receive "about $1 a hundred weight more" than Ontario farmers.
The study revealed Quebec producers also receive about $1 per hundred weight more than Ontario producers. Nap suggests part of the reason for higher Quebec market hog prices is 10 major packers bidding aggressively for pigs in an effort to keep plants running above 90 per cent of capacity. "We're running at about 68 per cent of capacity on a single shift in most plants," Nap states.
Another problem mentioned in the report is that Ontario packers slaughter lighter pigs than elsewhere, resulting in fewer kilos processed. GREPA says Ontario packers face higher labour costs and aren't developing byproducts as well as competitors.
Perhaps most importantly, the GREPA report says "actors involved in the Ontario pork industry are caught in a vicious circle." It says Ontario packers pay less for pigs because producers have shipped so many out of the province there aren't enough available to keep plants here operating efficiently.
The lack of supply negatively affects the profitability of the firms, the report says.
It also says one of the Ontario industry's chronic shortcomings is a tendency to blame others for problems. GREPA suggests producers strike long-term deals with provincial packers who in return would commit to acceptable payment and sufficient capitalization to keep the industry competitive. - Robert Irwin
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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Dwarf bunt seed treatment still hung up
Dwarf bunt has become Canada's most political plant disease, which probably makes sense: It's a disease that flourishes under snow cover.American wheat growers don't have to worry about dwarf bunt - and not just because they get less winter. Since 1994 the U.S. has let its farmers treat their seed with Dividend, the only fungicide capable of protecting the crop from soil-borne spores.
In Canada, Novartis Crop Protection has applied for registration so wheat growers in the lee of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay could use Dividend for the wheat they plant this fall for harvest in 1999.
But at press time that registration bid was still in Ottawa, and antsy farm reps on the provincial wheat marketing board and the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association were turning up the heat on Ottawa's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA). The agency had scored points with farmers earlier in the spring by registering new weed sprays such as Classic and Peak.
But Terry Ross, past chairman of the wheat board, said growers need Dividend to be confident of good wheat returns. Dwarf bunt typically cuts yields by five to 10 per cent. Worse, however, is that it contaminates the grain, leading to the harvest being downgraded for feed. Last year, that cost growers north of London $35 per tonne, or roughly $60 per acre.
Peter Johnson, provincial government crops adviser based at Komoka, says that after fusarium damage in 1996, followed by last year's dwarf bunt epidemic, many growers will stop growing wheat if they can't get access to seed treatments and other cures.
Dwarf bunt infects the crop midwinter and is especially severe when a deep blanket of snow lies over topsoil that is just above the freezing point.
Ontario's seed industry says it will apply Dividend if it gets the chance. "As soon as it is available, we will be using it," says Jamie Hackett, manager of the Cook's elevator at Hensall. Pioneer HiBred agronomist Tim Welbanks says the company will treat its seed if Dividend is registered.
The catch, says Rick Istead, product manager for Novartis, is that in order for supplies to be in place for treating the 1998 seed crop, Ottawa must register Dividend by June 30 at the latest. -Tom Button
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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Rural Ontario lobby and interest groups are embracing a plan to create a rural council that would help to co-ordinate their efforts.The Ontario Rural Council (TORC), which includes both the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, is not a lobby group, stresses Grand Valley dairyman Eugene Lammerding, chairman of the Foundation for Rural Living, who has been helping establish the council.
Lammerding says TORC wants to bring groups together to provide a forum where rural needs can be discussed and improve communication.
"People are completely unaware of what other groups and organizations are doing," says Lammerding.
TORC boasts membership of more than 30 economic, environmental and social groups, including the Ontario Rural Hospitals Association, and local government representation from the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA).
Lammerding says TORC will provide a network that will focus on issues facing the rural community and allow individual members to take the lead on specific issues.
"I see this as some kind of munitions factory. We make the bullets and pass them out to the troops," says Lammerding.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture met some resistance within its own ranks before deciding to join the alliance. Some OFA directors feared they would be creating yet another bureaucracy and abdicating their responsibility to lobby on behalf of farmers. But those concerns were soothed, says OFA executive member Ron Bonnett, who is "fairly enthusiastic" about what TORC can accomplish.
The council, administered under the Foundation for Rural Living, will hire a general manager and part-time administrative help. Funding is expected to come from the provincial and federal governments as well as individuals, member organizations and corporations. Both Ontario farm groups will pay a $500 annual membership fee.
Bonnett says the OFA would like to see TORC work on a couple of issues that everybody agrees upon, including the need for improved rural telecommunications and funding for rural infrastructure. "Let's not try to solve all rural Ontario's problems at once," he says.
If TORC has success in those areas, the OFA would likely make a long-term commitment to the organization, Bonnett says.
He says TORC will benefit the farm lobby. Farm groups such as OFA and CFFO will continue to lead on farm issues and TORC will give the farm groups an opportunity to explain concepts such as nutrient management plans and how they will benefit the rural community. "Then we don't find ourselves six months down the road with groups coming out of the woodwork wondering what's going on," he says.
Christian Farmers' research director Elbert van Donkersgoed says he has "modest expectations" for the rural council. He doesn't foresee TORC becoming the voice of rural Ontario, but believes there is potential for the group to set goals to improve social, economic and environmental conditions in rural Ontario.
Van Donkersgoed expects "stimulating conversation," but to get things done individual groups will have to do the legwork with support from the membership. Whether the council can work harmoniously remains to be seen. "It's a diverse group," he says.
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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Food prices to triple, says observer
Say good-bye to cheap food, says a consultant to the biotechnology industry.John Oliver, president, Maple Leaf Bio-Concepts, Oshawa, sees the potential for a "huge cost-price spiral" in North American food. Oliver predicts food and land prices will double by 2010. Many crops will return farmers between $10,000 or $20,000 an acre, with even more specialized crops bringing returns much higher.
Fueling this trend will be a tremendous increase in income and assets for people born between 1946 and 1962. These baby boomers are now approaching the age when their incomes will peak and their liabilities will fall, Oliver says.
With fat savings accounts and investment portfolios behind them, Oliver says they will strive to maintain their health as they grow older. They'll be willing to pay several times as much as they do now for food with special nutritional qualities that will improve their lives.
Oliver predicts that commodity products as we know them will be transformed into proprietary products.
He compares traditional agriculture to the Titanic, saying biotechnology is the life-boat. He says "we will hit the iceberg between 2005 and 2010. We will have to use biotechnology any place it can be shown to be effective."
The recession in Asia is temporary, Oliver says. Countries like China will continue to industrialize, building factories and cities on farmland and cutting back on food production at the same time demand is increasing. -Don Stoneman
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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