IN ALL the talk about developing a new farm policy for Canada to take the sector “beyond crisis management,” there is one topic all sides seem loath to discuss.
Should the new policy include a government commitment to pay farmers to leave the land?
The obvious answer is ‘yes’, since the existing farm population is on average older than it has ever been and tens of thousands of farmers earn too little to call it a living and yet cannot afford to simply walk away from the equity they still have.
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Agriculture Canada economists estimate more than 100,000 farmers will leave the industry over the next decade or less.
When pressed, they talk about a “transition” component in the new policy, but usually it is described as a way to help farmers improve their skills and change their operations, rather than a program to help ease some out of the business.
Governments are afraid to openly propose an “exit strategy” lest they be accused of giving up on farmers. Farm leaders are reluctant to promote the idea lest they be seen as promoting a defeatist attitude and giving governments a free hand to abandon farmers.
It has become a game of chicken with both sides privately agreeing the topic needs airing but neither wanting to be seen as the initiator.
Government wants farm leaders to propose it so they can produce a response to farm pressure. Farm lobbyists want government to raise it so they can respond to government proposals.
For the record, an exit strategy already exists and has since the 1940s. It is a strategy of willful ignorance.
Every year, thousands of farmers leave the land. In many cases, they have hung on too long, eroded or eliminated their equity and leave with little or nothing.
The current ‘exit strategy’ is to let it happen while denying any government obligation to offer these farmers an easier transition out of the sector.
Wouldn’t it be better to actively promote a policy that gives an option for farmers who want to leave?
Alas, that would require political courage. Politicians with long memories can recall the uproar when the idea of paying farmers to leave the land has been raised in the past.
Historically, there have been several small policy efforts to help farmers move on, but they have been overshadowed by the more common political instinct to ignore the reality for fear of being seen as endorsing it.
Recently, New Democrat MP Dick Proctor has started rising the issue, noting governments increasingly are telling farmers that if they cannot survive without subsidy, they should consider their options.
Is exit money one of those options? Proctor wonders aloud.
So far, the responses have been tentative, cautious, cloaked in qualifiers which do more to confuse than to clarify.
As federal and provincial agriculture ministers start laying the groundwork for their new long-term policy this June in Whitehorse, they should screw up their courage and clearly begin to talk about policies for those who want to stay and those who want to leave.
And farm leaders should find the courage to encourage them.
