OTTAWA – The Green party campaign in this election is an attempt to plant the seed of an idea that it hopes will change how farmers, farm leaders and Agriculture Canada consider their options.
It is a plea that Canadian agriculture re-think the industrial, high output and high input model that has developed during the past three decades.
It is a suggestion that an earlier model – smaller, more organic and locally oriented – is better. 
Read Also
Ag in Motion innovation awards showcase top 2025 ag technology
The 2025 Ag in Motion Innovation Awards celebrated winners across five categories: agronomics, agtech, business solutions, environmental sustainability and equipment.
“We need a new plan for Canadian agriculture, a plan which recognizes today’s reality of high costs and rising demand for quality local food, a plan that puts farm families first,” Kate Story, an organic grain, cattle and hog farmer from Grandview, Man., said during the Sept. 29 national agriculture critics’ debate in Ottawa.
During the debate and in an interview, the candidate in the Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette riding said a mindset shift is necessary. The government must begin to put more emphasis on organic research and farmers must begin to see that they can get off the treadmill of ever-higher demands for increased production at higher production costs and lower margins.
But she insisted the Greens are not saying Canada should become one large organic garden.
“We are not going to make anyone change the way they farm but we are going to make the case that there is a better model and government can be instrumental in encouraging farmers to switch to a more sustainable system,” she said from her farm west of Dauphin. “Of course, some farmers will choose to continue to farm as they do and that’s fine.”
Storey has been designated the national Green agriculture representative, although during debate on Manitoba agricultural issues broadcast across the province Oct. 2 and organized by Keystone Agricultural Producers, Portage-Lisgar candidate Charlie Howett delivered the same message.
When debate turned to how to cope with high and rising input costs, he said the answer is to help farmers wean themselves from reliance on expensive fossil fuel based inputs.
“I believe the answer is to put money into longer-term research that looks for more sustainable production models,” he said.
Storey has used the recent fatal discovery of listeriosis bacteria in processed meat products from a Maple Leaf plant in Toronto as an example of how centralized, industrial scale food production puts a broader population at risk. Listeriosis-related deaths were reported across the country as products from the plant went across Canada under a variety of brand names.
“If the model was smaller local plants serving a local population, a problem like that would be much more confined,” she said.
