As the official agent for the Green party in the rural Alberta riding of Macleod during the last election, Mark Taylor saw how farmers received the party’s agricultural policy.
“They just hammered us on it,” the petroleum engineer and Green party activist told delegates at the national Green party leadership and policy convention in Ottawa Aug. 26.
“It didn’t work for us or for them. We have to remember we are not aiming this at Green party members. We are aiming this at farmers.”
Delegates reacted by approving a new policy that is broader in scope and more specific, but still strongly influenced by support for organic farming, local production for local needs and a reduction in use of fossil fuel products.
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“I’ve discussed this policy proposal with many farmers,” Taylor said. “It’s at least a starting point.”
The policy approved by delegates calls for:
- Labelling of all food containing genetically modified material.
- Testing for BSE of all cattle destined for the food chain.
- An increase of the target for biofuel to 20 percent by 2020 compared to a Conservative government commitment of five percent biofuel content by 2010.
- A tax on non-organic pesticides and other non-organic inputs with the revenue raised used to train farmers to move into organic production.
- A shift in government supported agricultural research to organic and biofuel projects.
In separate resolutions, delegates also agreed that government support be removed from farmers using synthetic chemicals so that Canada can become an “organic nation.”
And delegates agreed that supply management should be defended in World Trade Organization negotiations but at the same time, the system should be reformed to make it available to small and organic farmers. They also said supply management should not penalize developing world farmers who want to sell products to Canada.
But support for supply management came over the objections of Grandview, Man., organic farmer Kate Storey, who complained that the system discriminates against small-scale producers because they cannot afford the hefty cost of quota to be able to expand their flocks.
She is limited to 100 laying hens.
“Supply management is making small farmers nonviable,” she said. By requiring such capital investment, it works only for larger industrial-scale high input agriculture.
The overall agricultural resolution also was not without its convention critics.
Sharon Labchuk from Prince Edward Island, the party environment critic, denounced the policy as a “hodgepodge” that would put the party in the position of co-existing with farming practices it does not support.
She said requiring GM labelling means the party would still tolerate use of GM technology. BSE testing means the party is recognizing the legitimacy of large-scale export-oriented farming and large slaughter plants.
“I just cannot support this,” she told delegates.
The original policy proposal also called for an end to the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly but that proposal was removed after an objection from the floor. A proposal that permit book holders be asked to vote before any changes to the monopoly are made was defeated, so the party has no CWB policy.
