WINDSOR, Ont. – Urban Canadian ignorance of agriculture and where food
comes from is one of the biggest obstacles facing farmers, says former
prime minister Joe Clark.
During an impassioned speech Aug. 1 at the Canadian Federation of
Agriculture’s summer meeting, the federal Progressive Conservative
leader said it is time for urban Canadians to recognize that the meat
on their plate comes from a cute lamb raised on a farm, and not the
supermarket.
“We have to take a very aggressive campaign into the cities, to people
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who are not willfully ignorant but have not had any opportunity to know
the relation between the pretty little lamb they might hear about in
fairy tales and the food that they eat,” he told reporters later.
“We have to make that connection known.”
Clark said a better-informed urban population would make it easier for
politicians and farm leaders to build a base of support when
governments are confronted by the need to help farmers.
Clark praised agriculture’s place in the Canadian economy and social
fabric, and attacked the Liberals for allowing its prominence to slip.
“In roughly the last decade, agriculture has lost its place near the
centre of Canadian public policy,” he said, drawing a line around
Liberal years in power.
Bad policy, inadequate support and a number of years of bad weather and
depressed markets have led to a farm crisis, said the Tory leader who
was briefly prime minister in 1979-80 and then served for nine years in
Brian Mulroney’s government.
“More and more farmers are packing up their dreams and leaving the
land.”
Clark reiterated the PC demand for a permanently funded disaster
program that compensates farmers for losses of income and assets during
floods, droughts, pest infestations and other calamities.
On July 30, he visited a Saskatchewan farm where he said grasshoppers
outnumbered the peas.
“We have to recognize that for whatever reasons, in each of the last
five years, there has been a different natural disaster in some part of
Canada,” he said after his well-received speech.
“It is becoming more regular. A system that didn’t work when there
weren’t many disasters was bad enough then. A system that doesn’t work
when there are more disasters is worse. So we have to put in place a
well-funded, pan-Canadian, flexible disaster relief system.”
