ELBOW, Sask. – Lyle Knutson is a veteran grain farmer who has been around the farm policy block more than a few times.
For 10 years until 2001, he was a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool delegate and a director for three.
In his younger days, he flirted with the National Farmers Union and the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
“I may be the only guy who belonged to both of those organizations, maybe even at the same time,” he laughs on his 2,900-acre farm in central Saskatchewan.
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Yet like his neighbours, Knutson finds himself turning away from farm politics and the policy debates that once attracted him.
“There is a high level of apathy out there, much more than when I was involved,” he says. “I have drifted that way, too. I think there is a cynicism toward the whole political arena in farming. It’s so tough to make a living these days and guys just don’t see that the political debates add one buck to their bottom line.”
Even as he says that, the 54-year-old farmer acknowledges that farm politics do matter.
“Despite that cynicism, it’s always important to have a voice out there to talk to governments because otherwise, they will be making policy in a vacuum,” he says. “But who are the effective representatives these days?”
Two hours away on her small farm east of Regina, Alanna Koch looks at the question of farmer representation from another angle. She is a rising star on the Agricore United board of directors, a veteran of Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association politics and vice-president of Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance.
“Unquestionably farm politics and lobbying matters,” she says. “I have come to the conclusion that government policy is determined by who shows up. If you don’t show up, policy still will happen because somebody will show up.”
But Koch also acknowledges that not all farmers share her faith in the influence of the farm lobby.
“If I was to consider farmer involvement now with when I was with the Wheat Growers, it is worse now, but I think that is a general problem. Many organizations are struggling to find and keep members.”
Politicians, particularly in Western Canada, see a different problem. There are so many competing farm group voices that it is difficult to figure out the message.
In Quebec, the Union des Producteurs Agricole is the legislated single provincial voice for farmers. In Ontario, major commodity groups and general farm organizations are setting aside differences in a “one voice” lobby to government.
On the Prairies, cattle, commodity and general farm organizations compete for attention, often issuing contradictory messages.
“I think if you compare East and West, there is a very visible difference,” says Saskatchewan deputy premier and former agriculture minister Clay Serby.
“I saw it very clearly when I was responsible for agriculture in the province. Both Quebec and Ontario have unity and very strong farm voices. On the Prairies that is not so and it hurts farmers’ interests.”
Nobody disagrees with him.
“Looking west, I guess I do see more of a lone ranger attitude,” says Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett.
Observes Koch: “We may be a bit more independent out here.”
Farmer divisions are rooted in economics, ideology and history. Little more than two decades ago, the Western Agricultural Conference existed to draw most interests together, trying to reconcile varying policies for presentation on the national stage.
“That was as close as the Prairies ever came to one voice,” says former Sask Pool president E.K. Turner. “The debates were tough but we had a voice at the end.”
However, cracks developed and the conference collapsed. Cattle industry leaders felt grain interests dominated, farmers who felt the pools had too much influence set up rival commodity organizations and the Crow Rate debates of the early 1980s blew up provincial general farm organizations across the West.
“These days, I hardly ever hear a coherent farm voice and I think that’s sad because farmers are the losers,” Turner says.
Regular farmer polling by the Ipsos-Reid company consistently shows no farm organization with even close to majority support west of Ontario.
“In the West, it appears there is a lack of voice, or at least a voice that attracts a lot of farmers,” Ipsos-Reid senior vice-president Curtis Johnson says. “This can’t be helpful. At the very least farmers should have a common voice for consumers.”
Five years ago, the national voice became more divided when commodity groups joined forces in Grain Growers of Canada, a rival to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
Brian Kriz, a farmer from Rimby, Alta., and the first GGC president, says many grain growers felt their trade and industry interests were not well represented by the CFA because of its effort to find a balance between export sectors and supply management.
“I just felt we didn’t need to compromise our interests to try to accommodate supply management,” he recalls.
And that leads Dan Leroy, who teaches agriculture policy at the University of Lethbridge, to question the logic behind talk of a single farm voice.
“On the issue of one voice, it is a bit of a false hope unless it is at a very high level because different sectors have conflicting interests,” he says.
Nonsense, responds CFA president Bob Friesen from Wawanesa, Man.
“It is not a mirage at all. Farmers have common interests and differences can be worked out but it takes hard work,” he says.
“We try to work closely with other groups and I really believe the commodity groups would be more effectively represented working through us. It has paid dividends in Ontario.”
