A glimpse of farmer optimism: is that still allowed? - Opinion

AS PART of the collection of oddball stories and editorial cartoons that adorn my Ottawa office wall, one of my favourites is an early 1990s cartoon creation by the Globe and Mail’s Brian Gable, a prairie lad.

An older farmer is standing in his field, making The Speech to his son: “This land was given to your grandfather by his father and then your grandfather gave it to me and now I’m passing it on to you, son.”

Beside him, the kid is saying: “What is this, like some kinda family curse or something?”

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At the time, it was good for a chuckle. The United States-European Union export subsidy trade war was on, the Progressive Conservative government of the day was doling out what then were record farm support payments (piddling by today’s standards) and the litany of farm sector gloom-and-doom seemed endless.

It was a witty take on the issue.

Less funny has been the number of times in the past few years that farmers and farm leaders speaking at conferences have used a variation on this joke to make the point that the industry seems to have no future.

Passing on the farm to the children is “a form of child abuse,” many have intoned.

Quebec farm leader Laurent Pellerin regularly says that without more government support, sectors of the agricultural economy are doomed.

The Canadian government should announce which sectors it is willing to sacrifice, he says, so he can tell his kids to leave the farm and get a job in a sector with a future.

This has become commonplace in farm politics discourse; the idea that, as it stands, agriculture is an industry without a future. Don’t wish the fate of a farmer on your kids.

Of course, farm kids hear this message and leave in droves even as their parents and agricultural economists fret about where the industry will find the next generation.

So imagine the shock last week to hear a farm leader not only wax nostalgic about his time in the business but commend it to his children.

Alberta rancher Hugh Lynch-Staunton, new president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, son of a former Alberta lieutenant governor and a member of the western branch of a successful Quebec family that produced a prominent Conservative senator in the current Parliament, was speaking to the annual summer board meeting of the association.

He seemed almost apologetic when he said farmers are not supposed to say this sort of thing: “It has been a good life.”

And then the ultimate heresy as he talked about his kids someday taking over the ranch:

“I think it’s going to be better for them than it was for me.”

And this testimonial came after three years in which the cattle industry was battered by BSE, billions of dollars of losses and a blow to the cattle producers’ belief in the free trade credentials of their American brethren by a closed border and a group called R-CALF.

Later, he chuckled about his apologetic approach to extolling the future of the industry and suggested other sectors of agriculture could benefit from a change in attitude.

“I think our glass is half full far more than it’s half empty.”

That kind of optimistic talk is rare these days. He should brace for the inevitable backlash.