Who should speak for farmers?
It’s a question that divided farmer delegates at Agricore United’s recent annual meeting.
Some wanted the farmer-influenced grain company to take a more decisive role in pushing for farm policy changes, while others thought the company should defer to general farm organizations.
“The general farm organizations can play a role in many, many issues such as taxation, fuel, repairing roads, et cetera,” Bill Duke, a farmer from Redvers, Sask., said in an interview.
“But when it gets down to the really tough issues such as trade, general farm organizations try to incorporate all of the farm players, like supply management and grains and oilseeds and processors, and it becomes very hard, and very divisive, to try to come up with a common policy.”
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Duke said Canada’s support for supply management sectors is hurting grain and oilseeds producers and a company such as AU should vocally advocate for prairie farmers’ interests.
But Garth Hugill of Swan River, Man., disagreed.
“Our general farm organizations should have more clout than a group like this, that claims to represent a lot of farmers but none have a membership.”
He said in an interview that a grain company such as AU can’t claim to represent a farmer’s opinion on grain policy just because he hauls grain to an AU elevator.
AU is the Prairies’ biggest grain company, but that doesn’t mean it represents farmer views, Hugill added.
“General farm organizations should take the lead,” he said. “It’s OK for us here to have our say, but the voluntary farm organizations should be leading.”
AU delegates approved a set of general principles they think the federal government should incorporate any time new agricultural policy is formulated, such as relying upon sound science, encouraging investment in agriculture, not interfering with market forces and supporting flexibility in the agricultural system.
