Farmers are getting shafted. The Saskatchewan farmer continues to struggle without an effective voice in regard to agriculture policy.
The individual commodity organizations are somewhat effective representing their individual commodities. The left and the right organizations have limited representation with individual membership.
The only general farmer organization completely lacks credibility, with a president that no longer farms and lives in Regina. The left leaning staff sends out monthly updates to the membership with negative cartoons of the federal agriculture minister, and then the board wonders why they can’t get meetings with the government.
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Then the ultimate insult to the Saskatchewan farmer’s intelligence: they send a communications person with a presentation to the Standing Committee on Agriculture.
The only positive thing they have done for farmers is get them a $10 gift card at Mark’s Work Wearhouse. In many of their member RMs the real farmers won’t even waste their time to be a representative for this organization.
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities is trying to fill the void on agriculture policy, but having one vice-president dealing with agriculture policy does not deal effectively with the large number of policy issues that farmers need to influence now and in the future.
It is time to reinstate the agriculture councillor in all the RMs. Then develop agriculture policy at a public forum with an elected committee that would lobby and consult with all levels of government.
This is the only way farmers can have a positive impact on current and future agriculture policies. An effective model that has worked well is the Clearing the Path Committee.
Glenn Blakley,
Tantallon, Sask.
