The co-operation that built prairie agriculture has been forgotten, farmers say, and it is time to bring it back.
One of the underlying themes during discussions at a two-day conference in Moose Jaw earlier this summer was that farm groups need to find common ground and work together.
And one of the biggest boosters of the idea was Ron Gleim, a farmer from Chaplin, Sask., and a director of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
Over the last five years SARM has taken a larger role in speaking for Saskatchewan farmers. But Gleim said the 30 or 40 commodity groups on the Prairies should be co-operating more often.
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“We have to somehow unite the farm organizations and try and present one unified voice to all levels of government. There is too much at stake.”
Gleim told the conference the various farm organizations could, and should, find common ground on issues like grain transportation.
When these groups lobby government individually, the politicians are likely wondering who is really speaking for farmers, he said. Grain companies and the railways end up with more clout.
“That’s because we’re sending mixed messages. We need a forum where everybody could sit down together. Probably 80 percent of the things we agree on. The other 20 percent we better get to work on.”
He said that might not be as hard as some people think. For example, the National Farmers Union and Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association united on Bill C-4, which changed the governance of the Canadian Wheat Board.
“I think (speaking with one voice) is always the goal,” said Cory Ollyka, NFU vice-president.
But Andy Schmitz, a University of Florida agricultural economist who also farms in Saskatchewan, said that isn’t happening. He said farmers could have received larger payouts when the Crow Benefit grain transportation subsidy was abolished if they had worked together.
Don Dewar, president of Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers, agreed. He said farm organizations were told by Ottawa that the status quo was not an option, but any attempt to work toward something else was undermined by the three prairie pools.
“They said the status quo was the only option for them,” Dewar said. “I firmly believe that (former agriculture minister) Charlie Mayer had double what we got. We didn’t talk to Charlie Mayer and we didn’t talk to Ralph Goodale.”
Lyle Knudson, a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool director, said a unanimous vote from delegates led to the pool’s position. He agreed common ground needed to be found.
“We tend to circle the wagons and then shoot inwards,” Knudson said.
Dewar said the prairie pools and KAP are the only western members of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and that might be an organization that could represent the common interests.
Glen McGlaughlin, a Regina consultant, said the next 12 months are critical as farmers await the Estey report on transportation and the fate of the rail freight rate cap.
“We’d better get our act together and not speak with a divided voice,” he said. “There will never be another opportunity.”
