EDMONTON – Farmers play a vital role in rebuilding the economy because they have a history of trusting people.
And trust, said American agriculture commentator John Phipps, is key to rebuilding the economy.
He told the Farm Tech conference in Edmonton that the credit crisis in the United States evaporated trust in financial institutions, governments and neighbours.
The only way to ease the crisis is to begin to trust again, he said.
“Pre-emptive trust is the best possible solution.”
He said farmers have often been thought of as rubes because they trusted total strangers, but that pre-emptive trust built communities and will rebuild nations.
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One of the keys to rebuilding trust, he added, is to begin trusting suppliers and to not tear up unfavourable contracts when prices increase or a better price becomes available elsewhere.
Phipps said he recently renegotiated a bank loan that favoured him because he knew it was important for his local bank to make money and stay afloat during these difficult times.
He said he once dated his local bank manager, but more importantly, after 35 years doing business together, he knew the importance of trust.
“In our community where we have ongoing relationships, if you break faith, you break the community,” said Phipps, who also hosts the U.S. Farm Report.
“If agriculture is to re-establish trust, individuals need to be trustworthy. Now is no time to fiddle with contracts.”
Phipps didn’t predict what the agriculture economy will look like in a year, but he did say it was a good bet all the acres would be seeded and most of the farmers wandering the convention hall at Farm Tech would still be in business.
“They will respond with the same grudging ingenuity and reluctant heroism exhibited through other crises.”
Farm Tech was held Jan. 28-30.
