Western Producer staff
It is ironic that Canadian grain farmers’ good fortune is someone else’s pain. This year’s near-record grain prices are bad news for many in the world.
In this food-rich and income-rich country, it is difficult to imagine that more than one billion people in this world do not have enough food to eat.
Sometimes, it is because of where they live, in dusty deserts of Africa or war-devastated areas of the Crimea or under-developed areas of the Indian sub-continent. Sometimes, it is because their governments prefer to spend limited national wealth on arms and police than on food and security for the poor.
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Usually, it is because they are poor.
For whatever reason, hundreds of millions of people are perpetually hungry while denizens of the developed world spend billions of dollars on diet scams and North American farmers benefit from shortage-induced high prices.
These are the ironies that face Canada as it prepares for this November’s World Food Summit in Rome.
High grain and food prices have made it more expensive for aid agencies to meet the need, and almost impossible for poor citizens of the world to buy the food they need, since we continue to buy their products at bargain-basement Walmart prices. These are the ironies Canadians should be considering as they are consulted by their government during the next two months on what stance Canada should carry to the summit.
The last time such a world food conference was held, in 1974, conditions were similar. Commercial markets were experiencing high prices because of commercial shortages.
But the mindset was different. It was an era when people believed in government, when public policy was the way to deal with inequities.
The United Nations wanted $850 million in pledges and 10 million tonnes of grain. Canada pledged one million tonnes of grain for three years and close to $100 million in contributions to food purchasing and development purposes.
The government was criticized for being too stingy.
Now, 21 years later, governments have decided that government is bad.
The Liberals in Ottawa have been busy dismantling government, cutting foreign aid (including food aid) funding and embracing free trade.
Canada’s representatives likely will go to Rome in November espousing freer trade as an answer to world food problems. They likely will go to Rome arguing that governments which try to protect their farmers from competition to increase rural income are wrong.
They likely will go to Rome insisting that government-sponsored food grain banks funded by richer nations is not the answer. Changes to national policy that allow the unsentimental breath of market forces to rule the day are the answer.
Barring a change in strategy, Canada’s face in Rome will be the face of free trade and “competitiveness” and pulling yourself up by your boot straps – a message from people born with boot straps to people who cannot afford them.
Have we changed that much in 21 years, just one generation?
