New Keystone Agricultural Producers president David Rolfe will try to lead Manitoba’s farmers toward brighter times this year, but he knows that many feel the outlook is bleak.
“We’re all feeling pretty bad,” said Rolfe, an Elgin farmer who immigrated from England almost 30 years ago.
“It’s just everything across the board.”
As KAP president, he sees the coming year’s challenges as trying to alleviate the legion of problems now besetting Manitoba farmers and to design long-term solutions that will make young farmers feel there is a dependable future in farming.
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One way to do that, he hopes, is to convince the provincial government to design a true right-to farm law that will give Manitoba farmers a fair hearing when neighbours complain about their practices and also stop unreasonable complaints from being considered.
“We need something that strengthens (present laws) and spells it out,” Rolfe said.
“Farming is a 24 hour business and it makes dust and it makes noise and it makes smells.”
Rolfe, who was a KAP vice-president, ran unopposed for the presidency, taking it over from Neepawa grain and hog producer Weldon Newton, who did not seek re-election.
The province’s Farm Practices Protection Act gives an appointed board the jurisdiction to consider complaints about how a farmer farms, but Rolfe said many farmers are forced to fight unreasonable complaints. They feel harassed and want a process that weeds out unreasonable complaints before a farmer is forced to fight to clear himself.
“We’re being challenged on all fronts now,” said Rolfe, mentioning urban encroachment and intrusive regulations.
Rolfe said a strong right-to-farm law would make farmers, especially younger farmers, feel confident that they could operate in peace.
Farmers need that, he added, because with BSE, currency appreciation and market volatility rattling revenues, some certainty would bring relief.
