A couple of items caught my eye recently.
One was a TV ad for a well-known beer company, showing a field of ripe grain, while a voice-over showered praise on Canadian farmers for growing great barley. It made a direct link between the quality in the field and the quality of the brew.
The other item was a story in the Jan. 14 edition of the Western Producer, where former Reform party leader Preston Manning and Toronto mayor David Miller advocated bridging the gap between rural and urban communities and finding common ground for farmers and city dwellers.
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Now, I don’t see eye to eye with Manning on more than a few things, and I wouldn’t recognize David Miller if he stopped and asked directions, but I have to admit I found that some of the things they said made sense.
Manning acknowledged that environmental concerns are legitimate. He suggested restructuring the federal agriculture department by creating a new department of rural affairs that focuses on rural communities, and stated that the term “farmer” is better than “agriculture” because it is “friendlier” and less industrial sounding. Miller laid claim to being a farm kid by virtue of his roots, and added he saw the situation from “both sides of the fence.”
That struck a chord with me. I grew up in Edmonton and I’ve been farming for more than a decade now. As a child, my experience with farms was limited to visits to my grandparents’ place. But there is a big difference between visiting a farm and running a farm. For one thing, my grandparents didn’t have to sign a bank document for a debt load that would gag a goat.
But I ended up chuckling to myself, as I continued to read about how farmers needed to communicate better and build bridges. It occurred to me that the whole point of farming is to produce food – and that important point was not even mentioned.
Our family farms feed everyone in the cities. We produce the food eaten by millions of Canadians and millions more around the world. Some of the earnest environmentalists who ponder whether farmers really are stewards of the land should also consider that many farms are more than 100 years old, and our families have fed their families for generations without ever looking them in the eye or receiving a thank you.
I think that makes farmers quite friendly. There is no question the vast majority of family farmers are exemplary stewards of the land. They understand that healthy soil is essential. Without their ongoing efforts, little food would be produced due to severe soil fatigue.
It’s sad that many people don’t know where their food comes from. It’s even sadder they don’t know what goes into their beer. That’s why I think that commercial showing the barley field was smart. However, the reality is that it takes more than a 30 second TV spot to educate people about the serious crisis facing Canadian farm families.
We are losing a whole generation of young farmers. We are losing family farms, not just one by one but by whole sectors. Look at how many hog farmers and cattle producers have gone broke in the last couple of years while the big packing companies pad their profits.
Urban people need to understand that if we lose our farms, we lose the ability, as a nation, to feed ourselves. And by feeding ourselves, I mean the beer, too. No farms, no food. No farms, no beer.
