VICTORIA, B.C. – Every time Laurent Pellerin turns around, someone new is complaining about the smell coming from his farm.
The Quebec hog farmer is getting tired of apologizing to his urban cousins for using environmentally sustaining practices in his livestock operation.
The push for a federal government program that’s friendly to the environment and good for agriculture’s bottom line gained momentum when farm leaders met two weeks ago for the 61st annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
“On the one hand you are trying to do something good, but the message (from government) is contradictory,” Pellerin said in an interview.
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No money in pocket
Using environmentally friendly farm practices doesn’t pay for farmers trying to sell their commodities in an increasingly competitive global marketplace, said CFA president Jack Wilkinson.
The farm lobby is not going to quietly accept the federal government’s decision to cut the four-year Green Plan.
It wants Ottawa to extend the program that gives farmers financial support for sustainable development initiatives. It suggests the government take $10 million from the national General Adjustment Fund budget and then strike a committee with farmers to put together an integrated agricultural and environmental program to kick in at the end of March.
Cutting the Green Plan after just four years is nonsense, said Pellerin, president of L’Union des Producteurs Agricoles.
“We think two years or three years is too short to have an impact at the end of the day when you want to change the plowing systems, the seeding system, the spreading of manure, the replacement of chemical fertilizer, the reduction of pests,” he said.
“You have to change a way of doing things that is 40 years old.”
Bad news
The federation didn’t get the answer it hoped for from federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale when he spoke to delegates Feb. 26.
“On the issue of the Green Plan, I wish I could conjure up a whole pot of new money,” Goodale told the meeting.
“That is not possible in the short term but in the long term there are ideas I would like to pursue when the light at the end of that tunnel gets just a little bit brighter than it is now.”
That wasn’t good enough for Tony Morris of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
“What do you tell the farmers on the back roads of this country about environmental programs so they can look after the resources we have,” Morris said.
In an interview following the conference, Wilkinson said the government has “made the decision they’re not going to be viewed as big spenders on their election campaign and that’s fine, but we’ve heard no before and it’s turned into maybe and then yes.”
Wilkinson believes the public will stand behind farmers, in principle and with their wallets.
“Farmers have a responsibility to the environment but so does the rest of society, especially when it comes to paying for its protection.”
