EDMONTON (Staff) – National Farmers Union members want their organization to start providing more practical services to farmers, including setting up NFU marketing agencies and bargaining collectively for farm inputs.
And they also gave approval to hiring a professional fundraiser to try to help the organization cut its $361,295 deficit.
During last week’s annual convention, a number of sessions were devoted to exploring the convention theme “Pride in the past; vision for the future.” And for many delegates, the NFU of the future should be focused less on policy and more on providing useful services to farmer members.
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Shortly before her election as president, Nettie Wiebe told the meeting that while there are key policy principles the farmers union will never abandon – such as justice and equity and collective action – the organization must also adopt some new strategies to try to rebuild its dwindling membership and finances.
“It’s not good enough to have all the rhetoric,” she said. “We have to know what to do and to be practical.”
Develop markets
Several delegates noted the union’s official statement of purpose talks about things like reducing farm input costs, conducting agricultural research and education, encouraging the development of markets and providing member services.
But those objectives have tended to fall by the wayside as the organization spent most of its time and energy lobbying governments.
Murray Gaudreau of Ontario said there is a lot of potential for the organization to go out and tell farmers “we are there to help you, not only with policy but with services to help you sell your product at a good price.”
Gaudreau’s comments came as delegates approved a resolution calling on the farmers union to explore the possibility of setting up NFU marketing agencies, a move he said could “revitalize the organization” at the local level.
Hart Haidn of Fort St. John, B.C., said as existing marketing agencies become bigger and more removed from farmer control, as is happening with Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, that leaves more room for smaller marketing organizations.
Haidn is involved in the Peace River Seed Co-operative, of Rycroft, Alta., which he said has brought millions of dollars to farmers in the region and has kept the rest of the seed trade honest.
“There are countless opportunities like this,” he said, adding that such activity really represents a return to the original objectives of the NFU.
Another area of interest is reducing members’ costs by bargaining collectively for discounts on bulk purchases of inputs like fuel, fertilizer or chemicals. While it’s already a fairly common practice in Prince Edward Island and Ontario, prairie NFUers have rarely tried it.
But that’s about to change, said Saskatchewan regional co-ordinator Don Kelsey. At least two locals in the province are planning collective bargaining next spring.
Delegates also passed a resolution calling on the union to develop and promote alternative farming methods.
Haidn said most research is slanted toward high-tech farming that requires large financial investments and encourages expansion, adding the NFU can take a leadership role in showing young farmers that there are alternatives to the current system
