The prospect of spending more money on government-mandated environmental and food safety initiatives does not sit well with Saskatchewan Wheat Pool delegates.
President Marvin Wiens, in his opening address to delegates at their annual meeting Nov. 14, said the national action plan for agriculture approved by agriculture ministers in Whitehorse last June is laudable.
However, the cost is of particular concern to farmers.
“Producers are not able to carry the costs associated with that framework,” Wiens said.
Federal and provincial bureaucrats who participated in a panel discussion during the meeting on Nov. 15 got the same message from delegates.
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Pool vice-president Ferne Nielsen said it is logical to be environmentally friendly and to produce safe food.
“But that comes at a cost,” she said.
People also want cheaper food, but tacking on more costs will cut already razor thin margins.
“We have no margin of profit left on the farm.”
Churchbridge delegate Norm Overland said Europeans are moving to Canada to escape environmental regulations, even though they are highly subsidized to finance those requirements.
Gord Nystuen, Saskatchewan’s deputy agriculture minister, said the challenge for agriculture is that the consumer effectively controls the environmental agenda.
He said farmers should take the initiative.
“I’d rather try to be moving on the slope under my own steam.”
Howard Migie, Agriculture Canada’ director general for marketing policy, said the public views agriculture as the second worst polluter, along with the pulp and paper industry. Only the chemical industry is considered to be worse.
He said 70 percent of Canadians agree government aid for farmers should be conditional on having environmental and food safety plans.
Weyburn delegate Alfred Robinson wondered how regulations could be enforced when farmers share the land with other industries.
He asked how agriculture is going to be “squeaky clean” when, for example, a salt water spill from the oil and gas industry is covered up with a load of gravel or another flare is erected to get rid of sour gas.
Nystuen said standards have to be the same for all industries.
“Some industries might have biases against the kind of activity we do in agriculture,” he noted.
Ken Moholitny, assistant deputy minister with Alberta Agriculture, said that province is removing the decision-making authority over intensive livestock operations from municipalities because it wants agriculture to be on the same footing as other industries.
He said it’s in farmers’ best interests, especially with regard to food safety.
The issue is more complex on the environmental side, he said.
Moholitny also cited a study that found the majority of prairie farmers don’t want to develop environmental farm plans.
Craig Lee, assistant deputy minister in Manitoba, said farmers need to know what those plans would involve, including the cost. He said some costs will have to be identified and responsibility taken for them.
