PASQUA, Sask. – It will take more than 70 combines and a lot of co-ordination.
But Barry and Eva Forge are already plotting how they can beat the world record combine harvest set this fall by their fellow food-aid donors in Westlock, Alta.
Two years ago, the Forges primed the pump of generosity in their southern Saskatchewan neighbors by donating the crop off 80 acres of their land to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
This year the bank got donations from double those acres from 30 local people.
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Forge says he got into the grain donations in 1994 because of his Mennonite in-laws who also farm. They introduced him to the foodgrains bank that originated with the Mennonite Central Committee in Steinbach, Man., in 1983 and is now sponsored by 13 churches.
The bank takes money and grain donations from Canadian farmers and helps countries in need.
“Probably this farm could feed hundreds of thousands of people,” says Barry of their 5,500 acres.
The Forges want to some day accompany a grain shipment to another country and see how it’s distributed. They support the foodgrains bank because it has low administrative costs and keeps out of politics, while maintaining a sensitivity to local farmers’ markets in receiving countries. Eva says the bank’s policy is to help hungry people whether the cause is famine or war, and regardless of color or creed.
Barry adds: “Basically Canadians have written, adopted and practise these things that the world wants to follow.”
What makes this family do-gooders? It helps to be a successful farmer, but Barry also has a clear analysis of agricultural issues and confidence in his ability to find niche markets to survive.
He is not keeping his knowledge to himself. Twice he has served as a mentor and financial partner to young men who wanted to start farming.
For Eva, the foodgrains bank is a way to get the community together.
“People feel better,” she says. “We’ve become so independent and it brings a satisfaction back. It’s good for farm kids to see this..”
Barry’s grandfather homesteaded the land where the Forges now grow durum, lentils and alfalfa. Farming was not always the choice for Barry, who says he would have been a commercial pilot if he had better eyes. Instead, he flew spray planes for 13 years until he had to choose whether to farm or fly.
Their three children in high school and university provide the labor on the farm, along with some hired men. The alfalfa baling works especially well with the kids’ school schedule and they are paid with a portion of the crop.
The Forges also bale their lentil and wheat straw and are anxious to see it turn from a bedding product into particleboard.
Although the Forges have no animals, Barry is involved in the livestock industry, “just not the stinky part.” As a feed and bedding supplier to cattle producers, he is subject to the beef cycle too.
His hand gestures cut the air more emphatically as he talks about farming in the next century. There will still be farmers and family farms, he says.
“I don’t see the vision of 100,000-acre farms, but I do see 10 to 20,000 acres.”
Bigger operations will be in the value-added end because primary production doesn’t pay enough, he says.
“That’s why the corporations don’t own the land. If it was profitable for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to own land, they would.”
Barry and Eva say hidden costs that a family accepts such as bookkeeping, driving and labor don’t pencil out when you have to hire a mid-level manager to run a huge farm. At the same time families will have to share capital and machinery to survive. And a wheat board that still offers price pooling and overall marketing for security but doesn’t stifle niche or dual markets would be the ideal situation, he said.
“If only prices wouldn’t fluctuate so much from year to year,” says Eva.
But Barry said Canadians are still better off than Americans since they are more diversified.
“Compare 200 miles south of the border and north of the border. We’re way ahead of them. You’re losing people by not subsidizing but in the long run, it works.”
