Easter's ag report a true eye-opener - WP editorial

When Wayne Easter was asked by federal agriculture minister Andy Mitchell to find solutions to chronically low farm incomes, few envisioned a report as radical as the document made public last week.

Easter, Mitchell’s parliamentary secretary, has issued a paper that takes unabashed aim at government policy of the recent past.

The report, Empowering Canadian Farmers in the Marketplace, focuses on strategies to improve producer power. It blames increased corporate concentration and international trade agreements for the erosion of this power.

It points out that although the prices consumers pay have increased over the last three decades, the prices farmers receive for their goods have not kept pace, and have even declined in some areas.

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Input costs have also steadily increased, reinforcing what farmers have long known – that their costs continue to rise while their incomes are stagnant.

Easter points out that in 2003, farmers’ net market income (realized net income minus government program payments) is negative almost $5 billion. His recommendations on increasing farmer market power focus on shifting Canada’s farm policy from its emphasis on agri-businesses to one more centred on primary producers.

It includes suggestions to limit the power of input suppliers, retailers and processors by restructuring the competition bureau and strengthening the Competition Act so corporate mergers would be analyzed for their effects on primary producers.

Easter suggests direct government investment in key areas, such as increasing slaughter plant capacity and helping to establish new generation co-ops – areas that could provide new markets for farmers.

Farmer power could also be boosted by addressing the expense side of the issue, the report suggests.

Easter asks for a review of user fees charged to farmers, that Canada explore standardizing regulations with the United States on pesticides and veterinary drugs and that society as a whole pay compensation when farmers are required to take actions that benefit the general public.

Among other recommendations are community-run land trust programs to make land more affordable and the creation of a farmer-owned international food export company similar to Canagrex, a crown corporation that failed in the early 1980s.

In international matters , the government should enforce existing trade agreements and better protect primary producers in future trade negotiations, states the report.

Easter also raises the need for Canadians to speak with one voice at international trade talks and stresses a balanced approach at talks, defending supply management and the Canadian Wheat Board while emphasizing the importance of trade.

The report contains strong language urging ministers and those acting on behalf of the minister of agriculture to act as advocates for producers.

When Lyle Vanclief was in charge of the agriculture portfolio through most of the previous 10 years, the department was often criticized for its agri-business leanings. Grow, diversify, get lean and mean, farmers were told.

It is dogma that Easter refers to as the efficiency myth and he makes the case that farmers have already become “amazingly efficient during a cruel process that has eliminated two-thirds of them in the last half-century….”

Most farmers, he argues, are more efficient than most agricultural businesses.

Many of Easter’s proposals will be viewed as controversial. Taken together they form a radical departure from recent government policy.

The report harkens back to a time when the concept of collective marketing as a means to achieve producer power served as a touchstone for generations. That is no surprise given that Easter is a former president of the National Farmers Union, a group he footnotes often in his report.

There will be those who disagree with the recommendations.

Many maintain that the only way farmers can be become truly profitable and self-sustaining is if they are permitted to shop their wares around to the highest bidder.

But regardless of philosophical background, Easter’s overall objective of returning more power to producers deserves close attention by policy makers.

Let’s hope it is not too radical a departure from recent policies for MPs and cabinet members to take seriously.