Farmer unity sounds great in theory, but are western Canadian farmers willing to shut up to achieve it?
Producers have been pondering that question this winter at farm meetings in Manitoba.
“We speak against each other,” analyst Larry Weber said during a market outlook presentation at Manitoba Ag Days, noting Quebec farm groups do better at arguing in private but having solidarity in public.
“There are so many conflicting voices, we can be ignored.”
However, a rift that that appeared during the Keystone Agricultural Producers’ recent convention highlighted the difficulty of bridging the gulf in farmer world views.
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“I have trouble understanding livestock producers, hog producers,” said Butch Harder, a farmer from Lowe Farm, Man.
He criticized hog farmers for objecting to Manitoba’s hog barn moratorium and ignoring his suggestion to focus on changing the marketing system.
“They were more concerned about bitching about not being able to build more barns,” Harder said.
He also ridiculed cattle producers for wanting to operate without government interference except when they need help.
“I’m really perplexed as to what it is these producers want,” he said.
“They got what they want, and they still don’t know what the hell the problem is.”
Harder’s attack drew an outraged response from hog producer George Matheson, who said he was appalled Harder would so openly ridicule the livestock industry.
Harder’s views are common among some on the left wing of farm politics, who generally blame the industrialization and business focus of modern hog operations for undermining the ability of small farmers to continue operating small herds of pigs.
A few, like Harder, have publicly blamed the hog industry for its troubles, sparking anger from struggling hog producers.
On the flip side of farm politics is Weber, a self-described right-winger who during his presentation at Manitoba Ag Days said farmers need to unite in public, like Quebec’s farmers, so that governments can’t divide and conquer by playing farm groups against each other. He said he has offered to bring the farm community together, from left to right, but his offer hasn’t been embraced.
How Weber planned to achieve this bridging wasn’t clear and he wasn’t offering olive branches.
During his presentation, he ridiculed the competence of the Canadian Wheat Board, a popular target for the right wing but a popular cause for the left, drawing laughter from some but stony silence from others.
And, like Harder, he is well-known for his caustic, independent opinions, which might not fit in if farmers swallowed their differences to present a united front.
After Harder’s attack, a member of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association approached a reporter at the convention to say Harder’s view was not the official view of the MCGA and that he was speaking for himself.
When asked whether farmers could ever bridge these differences to present a united front, he said it would be possible but difficult.
“You’d have to agree to not talk about a lot of things,” he said.
