Wayne Easter’s prescriptions for an attack on the blight of chronically low farm incomes have met with a mixed and often negative industry reaction.
Easter, parliamentary secretary to agriculture minister Andy Mitchell, presented a report to federal and provincial agriculture ministers that blamed a lack of farmer market power for their plight, corporate concentration as part of the problem and a more activist government as part of the solution.
He also called for regulatory reform to make the Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency more efficient and less costly to farmers.
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However, it was his suggestion that agri-business is a major part of the farm income problem that got Wayne Drul’s goat.
The farmer from Oakburn, Man., and chair of Agricore United said Easter seemed to be using corporations as scapegoats.
“What struck me about the report is that it takes corporations as the target responsible for bringing down commodity prices and raising input costs,” he said.
“It is not true. It is convenient to point fingers at corporations but the real problem is government interference, high subsidies and trade barriers that has distorted the market.”
He said Easter, a former National Farmers Union president, showed an anti-corporate bias.
Easter had noted that while most parts of the food industry are profitable, the producers of the raw food that fuels the system are losing money. He suggested it was because input providers and downstream buyers and transporters are concentrated and can extract their profit from the system while farmers cannot.
“I think Mr. Easter is looking for somewhere to point a finger, because farmers are looking for that, and corporations are an easy target,” Drul said.
“But most corporations are just making enough to stay in the business and be sustainable.”
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen was more impressed.
The Manitoba hog and turkey producer said Easter was correct to debunk the notion that farmer efficiency and land base are the problems and that farmers must become more efficient if they want to be profitable. Friesen said an imbalance of market power is a key reason for chronically low farm incomes.
“He got many things right and clearly Mr. Easter listened to farmers,” Friesen said. “Market power is a significant issue. Regulatory reform and cost recovery are significant issues. The government must be sure that in trade negotiations, it does not weaken systems like the Canadian Wheat Board and supply management that actually give farmers some market power.”
Liam McCreery, a southwestern Ontario grain and oilseeds producer and president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, was less kind.
He said Easter was wrong to dismiss trade agreements and increased trade as an answer to farm income woes and was wrong to suggest that governments become more involved in the market to support farmer co-operatives or to challenge corporations.
“The problem with markets is that there still is too much government interference,” McCreery said. “Free trade has been good for us. As a producer, I want the freedom to participate in markets without government interference. I have choices. I want to make my own decisions without political distortions in the market.”
