EDITORIAL
Supporting the exporters
When Canada's agriculture ministers met in Niagara-on-the-Lake earlier this summer, they were comforted by tantalizing agriculture and food export targets on which Canada's food exporters have taken dead aim.The Canadian Agri-food Marketing Council (CAMC), representing the country's food processors, wants to grab four per cent or $40 billion of the world food trade by 2005. In 1997, exports reached $22.3 billion. The CAMC says 200,000 jobs could be created in the sector if they reach their goal.
CAMC, however, had little say on the health of farmers - key suppliers of export commodities and the raw product processors will use to woo foreign buyers.
With politicians and processor goals in mind, many farmers will have to ask some tough questions this fall after harvesting crops and then collecting market revenue insurance or dipping into NISA to make ends meet.
Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief vigourously defends Canada's farm safety net, but will a new deal, which he and provincial ministers hope to complete next year, provide the comfort farmers need to fill feedlots, hog barns and plant fencerow to fencerow crops?
The federal safety net envelope, which has shrunk considerably since the Liberals took office in 1993, now contains about $600 million. Vanclief has often mused on the possibility of the envelope growing fatter, but routinely stops short of promising new money.
Farm ministers are currently exploring the possibility of including a national disaster program as part of the new safety net deal, but Vanclief says funding will likely have to come within the existing budget. It's a good idea, but not if it jeopardizes existing programs.
You would think helping to create 200,000 jobs would be worth more than a cut in funding.
Ontario farmers are also looking to receive their due from the provincial government. After producing more than $5.6 million in exports last year, and serving as the backbone of the food sector, farmers are seeking some much-needed relief from the province's Retail Sales Tax. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is preparing a study that will look at the impact the tax has on Ontario farmers' ability to compete with other food-producing heavyweights.
The OFA is hoping to show that paying RST on farm inputs dulls Ontario farmers' competitive edge.
"Tax relief creates jobs" is the tune the federation hopes to be singing to a government that wrote the song and played it ad nauseum for three years.
Politicians have to remember that Canada's agri-food export celebration will be a disappointing affair unless farmers are invited to the dance.
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LETTER FROM EUROPE
By Norman Dunn
Financial squeeze makes farms grow
Locating farms in sparsely populated countryside where reliable signposts are as rare as hens' teeth has always been a special skill required of ag journalists. There are regions of Europe where this rural navigation is becoming much more difficult.The main reason is the recent massive change in farm size. In eastern England, for instance, or in Picardy and the Marne valley in northern France, 200 or 300 acres was the rule for a normal farm at the beginning of the '70s. The present size is nearer 1,000 acres. Result: Farms are fewer, and much further apart. Earlier this year in Lincolnshire, eastern England, a farm manager told me that individual business sizes had expanded by a factor of 10 in the last 20 years. "There's not a farm in my district with less than 3,000 acres now," he said.
The change is much slower in regions like western Germany, where some political parties go to the polls on a "family farm retention ticket." But the direction's the same. There, some 530,000 farmers survive compared with over a million 30 years ago. And it's estimated that the total will be down to the quarter-million mark by 2005. Back in 1970, the average farm in the western parts of Germany covered 28 acres. By 1990 the mean unit size was 50 acres. This year, it's 60 acres. Where family farming and rural infrastructure aren't issues, politicalsupport still goes to the bigger agricultural enterprises. In eastern Germany, for instance, there was pressure to regain a small farm structure when the Berlin Wall came down and agriculture changed back from state farms or communes covering thousands of acres to private farm businesses.
"The reinstatement of private enterprise on the land is our aim," one official told me at the beginning of the '90s. "But we want to get away from the small farm syndrome. We're not encouraging people to start farming with less than, say, 100 acres, a breeding herd of 300 sows or 100 milking cows." On the other hand, where the small family farm still matters, in Holland (average farm size 42 acres), Belgium (47 ac), Ireland (70 ac), Austria (38 ac), it's not lack of political will that's leading to steady farm depopulation, it's financial pressure. Families need more money to survive nowadays, and current commodity prices mean small farms just aren't supplying enough. But it could be that the slide toward bigger units in most of these countries will slow down from now on. The feeling is that comparatively small farm structures can be retained within integrated production and marketing systems that maintain the independence of the smaller units. Holland and Denmark, and now Brittany in northwest France, are among the pioneers in organizing strong co-operatives and farmer groups for rearing and marketing of livestock - especially successful in the pig sector.
The technique is not new, but farmer organizations are becoming more and more professional in controlling input prices, negotiating contracts and guaranteeing consistent quality of produce. It's interesting to note that one of the primary selling points for Brittany pork - and poultry - is that the produce is raised not in big factory units, but on traditional family farms.
Will the smaller European cropping unit survive, too? One of the greatest weaknesses of this class of farm is the lack of investment capital for harvesting machinery and grain drying and storage facilities. Coming to the rescue now are, ironically, the small farmers' bigger neighbours. Leaders among the larger grain growers in Germany are not only spreading their own machinery costs through contracting out harvesting machinery to their smaller neighbours, they're offering grain drying and storage.
And the latest neighbour-contracting package includes the
marketing of the
grain as well. "Here in the west, no one wants to see the
countryside
losing its present structure," said one of the bigger grain
growers in
Lower Saxony. "By offering our machinery and marketing expertise
we're not
only helping our smaller neighbours to survive, we're also
expanding our
own businesses without having to buy or rent more farms. With
land costing
upwards of $3,000 per acre, the only people losing out through
this
approach are the bankers."
Norman Dunn is Farm & Country's European correspondent, based in
Germany
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There's something for everyone at a fair
"Don't worry about bringing the calf to the fair - you have enough to do right here," said my husband as he left for a conference and show in the States a few years back. Neil would be gone for a few days, and I, a nervous amateur, was relieved to be left off the hook from entering the county Holstein show while he was gone.His grandfather was a different matter, however, barely containing his excitement at being part of the show ring. In the '20s, he'd brought his first string of purebred Shropshire sheep to local fairs by horse and buggy, graduating to a Ford touring car for the 1930 Guelph Winter Fair and, for a time, the train to Chicago. By the time he retired from showing sheep in 1976, his son's prize-winning Suffolks and Dorsets were being exported via airplane. And until his death in 1989, he was right there with the kids when they began showing. I guess showing gets into one's bloodstream much as farming does.
Truth be told, I can't remember going to a fair until I started dating my husband. I soon learned what they were about, as our dates began revolving around them - along with some spring shows. Neil's dad was on the road to county fairs across Ontario, from July until the closing of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in November. Neil, his brother and sister were practically raised in the show ring, each in turn being dubbed champions in 4-H showmanship classes.
When our own children came along, they debuted at showing paper plate clown faces and Lego models, progressing to foods, crafts, field crops and cattle.
Neil's term as Lincoln Agricultural Society president and my own years as chair of the Food Division and a Homecraft judge gave me ample insight into the team effort required to pull off a successful fair. Dedicated, knowledgeable volunteers are essential in every area, from the baby show to gardening, fruits, vegetables, poultry, livestock and crop production. Thanks to entertainment committees, communities can watch top acts from grandstand seats that are included in the fair's admission price. That's a real deal considering the fact that county fairs have been known to feature some spell-binding childrens' shows, action-packed stunts, and such names as the Good Brothers, the Wilkinsons, Family Brown and Ronnie Prophet. On a more patriotic note, some of us have been lucky enough to see the RCMP Musical Ride and the OPP Golden Helmets.
The Demolition Derby always draws a big crowd, and I'm particularly curious to see the results at the Smithville Fair: Four area brothers - dairy and cash crop farmers - have been busy painting and preparing cars to compete against one another in it a spirit of good fun and camaraderie.
In this fast-paced world, there are few places where urban dwellers can learn the true meaning of agriculture. There was a time when just about everyone could visit their grandparents' farm, but nowadays it's rare to find a person whose grandfather didn't work in a factory, while their grandmother brought in a second income. Yet even today a fair can bring city and country folk together in a way like no other, for a valuable eye-opening experience that is no less fun than educational.
There's something for everybody, young and young at heart alike. While I was never one for those daring high-as-a-silo rides, I can tell by the line-up for tickets that a lot of people are looking for just that kind of excitement. Personally, I was disappointed recently when Amanda, in her recent quest for independence, said she wanted to go on the merry-go-round alone.
Aside from the carnival atmosphere of the midway, a fair provides a showcase of talent, achievement and new ideas. It's all there - the latest in farm and lawn equipment, home improvements, needlework and an assortment of handmade crafts.
Bypassing Toronto for a more leisurely country drive last month,
we
noticed all kinds of Agricultural Society fairgrounds and signs.
Maybe
it's no coincidence that their locations, like the memories they
inspire,
are at the heart of so many communities.
Margaret Comfort partners a family dairy farm near St. Catharines
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Rural clout fading away in Parliament
When rural MPs return to Parliament Hill after more than 10 weeks back among the people, they should have lots to talk about. In normal times, at least.If this was a typical Parliament, it would be safe to predict that agricultural issues would figure prominently on the floor of the House of Commons in the days ahead.
Drought has hit several counties of Ontario, leading many cattlemen into forced herd liquidation. Government seemed oblivious. Prairie grain incomes are plummeting as the impact of lower 1998-99 prices take their toll. Statistics Canada has reported a sharp decline in farm income as 1998 progresses.
There are growing demands from farm leaders for government recognition that the existing farm income safety net is under-funded and inadequate.
And in yet another election year, American politicians have spent the past month threatening Canadian imports, musing about checks of Canadian product heading south and trying to impose country-of-origin labelling requirements onimports.
Meanwhile, Canadian dairy farmers continue to steam as yet another federal inquiry into butteroil imports delays a final decision on whether they will be subjected to higher tariffs as a competitor to supply management products.
So indeed, the returning politicians should have much to talk about. The Liberals should be vulnerable, at least to the prospect of increased political pressure. If this was a normal Parliament, it would be easy to imagine Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief finally being put through his paces, finally being forced to apply some political discipline to either defending the government position of "no more support" or being forced to promise that he'll go to bat inside government for more help.
But it isn't a normal Parliament. There is no reason to imagine this House will give agriculture any more priority than did the last one. There is no reason to assume that any more questions will be lobbed across the floor at Vanclief than the paltry few that made it into the Commons during the first year of the Parliament. Why is that?
In part, it is a reflection of the fact that rural Ontario is represented exclusively by Liberals, and it is a brave Liberal who will publicly challenge the brass for lack of action or compassion.
In part, it is a reflection on the opposition Reform Party. Though it represents almost all rural western seats and hungrily eyes rural seats in Ontario and east, rural issues rate well down the Reform political food chain. The party seems to have other hot buttons to attract rural conservatives - tax and budget cuts, law and order, national unity and Indian affairs among them. Agriculture and rural affairs have seemed like just more of those special interests that Reform loves to ignore.
In the Commons, the role of the NDP as the traditional defender of farmer interests seems little more than an historical echo. And the Tories - well, the less said, the better. Their MPs occasionally raise agricultural issues, but as the fifth party involved in a leadership contest that pits 1980s luminaries against unknowns, it doesn't always gather much attention.
So don't count on this new parliamentary session to produce much
more
attention for farm issues. And given the fodder that is
available, it
raises a serious point for farmers who wish the system was a bit
more
attentive. Is this Parliament an urbanite aberration? Or is this
the first
real practical flowering of the long-discussed decline of rural
clout in an
urban society?
Barry Wilson is an Ottawa-based farm columnist
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