It seems lately that my outlook on life might have been shaped by skating on the slough with my head down and finding the south end of a north-facing cow.
I was in Ottawa a week ago, speaking with folks from the agricultural industry, including farmers, input suppliers and, being Ottawa, government. There were also folks from the farm machinery industry and grain companies. Many of us have known one another for a decade and sometimes more.
The occasion was Grow Canada, a meeting organized by the major input companies that attracts a great selection of Canadian farm leadership, farmer organizations and government folks.
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Presentations offered insight into a variety of topics related to the present and future of agriculture and are well worth experiencing first hand by producers — at least once. And it’s a great opportunity to meet folks whose lives, like yours, revolve around agriculture.
Receptions at events like this create great opportunities to discuss our opinions about Canadian farming and food and maybe even change our minds, or those of others, about a few things.
Being a career journalist, I’m programmed to ask the questions.
Being me, I “occasionally” rant about a variety of topics both agricultural and political. Lately my rants have been the taxing issue of carbon, banning of useful and not very destructive fungicides, the lack of awareness about the vital necessity of railroads and pipelines for the continuation of life as we know it Western Canada, international trade and land ownership.
Anyone who thinks government policy doesn’t have a direct influence on the profitability of farming might have skipped the annual rural history-in-the-making class, called The Western Producer.
One of those rants in Ottawa did lead me to a conversation in which someone else did the interviewing.
“Why do you do what you do?”
Before I could think about it, I answered.
Everything I do puts more food into the world. I give farmers information they didn’t know they needed. I give the markets information they thought they had. I share discoveries and technologies from across the globe that potentially make producers more productive and sustainable. And in my spare time I grow a little myself.
Sometimes you find yourself in the questions of others.
Keep your heads up and your sticks on the ice.
