There is sadness in Beverly Stow’s eyes when she talks about the rural town where she grew up.
She describes how the fabric of the community was torn away one thread at a time by rural depopulation. The school, the church, the elevator and most of the community organizations are gone.
“It is very, very sad,” she said, reflecting on those changes.
Stow is also saddened by the number of farmers leaving the land. She thinks family farmers have a value beyond the food they produce. She regards them as vital to a healthy society.
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“I don’t think people leave because they want to. They leave because there’s not a lot of hope of prosperity that they can see.”
Her concern about the future of farming and rural communities took her to Brandon, Oct. 26-27. Farmers, bureaucrats, academics, clergy and farm organizations gathered at a conference called Recapturing Wealth on the Canadian Prairies.
The conference stirred ideas about how to improve the economies of farming and rural communities and it left people resolved to work for change.
“I’m encouraged by the event and I’m encouraged progress will be made,” said Rene Van Acker, chair of the conference organizing committee.
Stow, who farms with her husband near Graysville, Man., said family farms need more friendly government policies. But she said producers also must become aware of events that affect them.
“We’ve got to pay attention and connect the dots so that when something happens, we can foresee the consequences.”
She cited the removal of the Crow Benefit subsidy as an example. The demise of the Crow cost Western Canada billions of dollars, she said.
“Farmers, in the long run, have tended to adapt to negative change rather than organize to act against it.”
Stow, speaking as a producer panelist at the conference, said farm organizations and commodity groups should meet periodically, decide what policies would benefit agriculture as a whole and then visit Ottawa with a list of demands.
“I guess I would have to say that if our grandfathers could effect positive change, so can we. First, however, we’ve got to realize that we have to get together and stick together.”
Peter Schroedter, a sheep and cattle producer from Ashern, Man., drew hope from the conference.
Several changes are needed, Schroedter said, including a commitment by government to seek long-term solutions rather than dealing with only the immediate problems.
The idea of a land set-aside program has merit, he said. That would see farmers paid to take part of their land out of production, giving that land a rest while possibly lowering overall commodity production on the Prairies.
He supports the use of taxpayers’ dollars to reward producers for good stewardship of the land. Keystone Agricultural Producers last month endorsed a proposal that would combine a land set-aside program with the idea of paying producers for farm practices beneficial to society and the environment.
Schroedter, a producer panelist at the conference, also spoke of the need for strategic alliances among producers. For example, organic producers of beef, poultry and honey could pool their efforts to tap niche markets. Together they would have the resources to hire outside help, such as marketing expertise, if it was needed.
Schroedter dismissed the notion that survival means buying more land and increasing production through tools such as biotechnology. It was a sentiment shared by others.
“It isn’t that big is bad, but what’s the point of getting big if it isn’t making any more money?”
Don Dewar, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, underscored the importance of how domestic and foreign policies affect the future of farms and rural communities.
However, he said changes also can start at the local level. He pointed to the example of the Manitoba-North Dakota Zero Till Association, which arose from farmers looking for a better way to manage their land.
The early leaders of that effort encountered skepticism, but they worked together, shared ideas and persevered. The result was a farm practice that cuts down on field work while helping conserve soil and moisture.
“It’s going to be a bunch of ideas,” Dewar said of the changes needed to get farmers past the quagmire of low returns and high input costs.
“It’s not going to be something we can do en masse.”
