KENOSEE LAKE, Sask. – Saskatchewan members of the National Farmers Union took some time to pat themselves on the back during their recent annual regional convention.
Their accomplishments might go unnoticed by some but Terry Boehm of Allan, Sask., said many are benefiting from NFU work.
“Farmers are not aware this organization ensured they could afford seed,” he told about 30 people gathered for the meeting.
Boehm, the national vice-president, was talking about the NFU’s seed saver campaign. The farmers’ right to save seed for their own use is exactly the kind of issue the NFU is known for.
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Don Kelsey, the provincial co-ordinator, said the NFU takes on a lot of issues that other organizations won’t touch because they don’t have the resources or someone willing to “put their teeth into it and stick with it.
“Yet, (saving seed) is especially one that is of fundamental importance to farmers,” Kelsey said in an interview.
Boehm said the NFU has worked with people outside the organization and been able to get its message out.
Yet some likely haven’t followed the seed regulatory framework review or considered how it might affect the way they farm.
Most farmers are concerned about the day-to-day business of farming but Kelsey said someone has to take a more detailed look at policy issues.
Boehm said the seed sector review, for example, proposed major changes to the way crop varieties are registered, replacing a system that involves years of trials and independent testing with information coming from seed companies themselves.
Federal and provincial governments don’t always like the NFU because it is often critical of policies it doesn’t believe are in the best interests of the family farm. He said the NFU recognizes family farms have changed but that doesn’t lessen the importance of making them sustainable.
The high grain prices this year led some farmers to get out while the going was good or to rearrange their finances at the bank to stay farming.
“This year is key,” Kelsey said. “If something happens to this year’s crop, heaven forbid. It has to make it to the bin.”
