Former prime minister says farmers need to find sympathetic partners to help lobby government on issues like neonicotinoids
LONDON, Ont. — A former prime minister has told Ontario’s grain farmers that they need allies to more effectively lobby government on issues such as seed treatment insecticides.
“In order to become an effective minority, there might be some constructive partners, including from within the environmental movement,” Joe Clark said at Grain Farmers of Ontario’s March Classic conference March 24.
“Try to identify people who are not hostile but may be uninformed,” he said. “We need to learn a way to move beyond our own prejudices and begin to see how others view events.”
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Ontario’s environment ministry had released its proposed regulatory changes the day before the conference. They would establish neonicotinoid seed treatments as a new class of pesticides under the province’s Pesticide Act and reduce their use on corn and soybeans by 80 percent by 2017.
The proposed legislation requires a paper trail related to the sale and application of the insecticides imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and cloth-ianidin, including provisions requiring farmers to demonstrate pest pressure.
Grain Farmers of Ontario, through its Pollinator Task Force coalition, also looks to reduce the level of neo-nicotinoids use but primarily through non-regulatory means.
The organization said the government lacks “defendable evidence” when making its claims about how the insecticides affect pollinator health and suggested it should better weigh the likely impact on farmers and rural communities before moving forward.
It and the Ontario government agree that pollinator decline is related to a number of factors, of which insecticides is just one.
Clark said in an interview that he knows “very little” about the science surrounding neonicotinoids. His intent in speaking to the issue was to encourage a conciliatory approach among farmers.
Canada’s farm and rural communities, once a political force to be reckoned with, are now small minorities, he added.
“International migration is responsible for two-thirds of the population growth in most of our cities. In Ontario, it is projected that by 2025, 50 percent of the population will be living in the greater Toronto area.”
Clark said farmers should learn to think in scientific terms, base their decisions on clear evidence and emphasize the economic importance of the agricultural and food industries to Canada.
