LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Is there a farm crisis in Western Canada?
Six panelists and an active audience of 45 had trouble answering that question in the 90 minutes allotted to the subject at a recent Mennonite Church conference.
Rural depopulation was fingered by many as the main culprit.
“The hospital is gone, nursing home is gone, the elevators are gone, and the schools are going,” said a pastor in rural Saskatchewan with three churches.
“Are the churches next? Will our people soon have to drive 50 to 60 miles to worship?”
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He said there appears to be little interest within the broader church body to maintain rural churches, “and that is a big part of the rural-urban crisis.”
Panelist Florence Driedger of Regina, who works with the Saskatchewan Farm Stress Line, said a solution to rural depopulation is critical.
One farmer she knows sold everything and moved to the city.
“He is totally alone in the city and he cries because there is nobody there who understands him.”
Panelist Ernie Hildebrand, a pastor from Cartwright, Man., said there has been much soul searching about the problems of the agricultural crisis, but few solutions.
He outlined a list of issues, starting with what he called farm injustice. Farm commodity prices continue to fall while retail prices are steady or increasing.
John Hubert of Coaldale, Alta., an official with the Alberta Agricultural Financial Services Corp., which is a primary lender mainly to beginning farmers, said there is a good side to agriculture. He sees many young farmers who are excited and have a lot of ideas.
Hubert questioned whether there really is an agricultural crisis.
“Is it an income crisis, is it a land ownership crisis, is it a cyclical problem?”
Art Wiens of Herschel, Sask., turned his farm over to a son at a time when he sees neighbors losing the land they have farmed for decades. He said society likely can’t stop the rush to larger farms that rely on economies of scale and efficiency of production, but society must find a way to manage that situation.
Joyce Sasse, a retired United Church minister in Pincher Creek, Alta., and a spiritual columnist for The Western Producer, said the rural lifestyle is a unique culture with its own values.
She called for an ecumenical approach to the farm crisis to rebuild agriculture and rural communities.
“The key to the battle is to avoid cultural extinction,” said Sasse.
“We need a wide ranging discussion from all perspectives.”
