THE first item of government business to hit the desk June 1, 1980, the day the Western Producer Ottawa bureau
news opened, was legislation proposing creation of a new food-exporting crown corporation Canagrex.
In the end, it turned out to be a massively miscalculated and mishandled piece of public policy that had more to do with Eugene Whelan’s dreams than with the resolve of Pierre Trudeau’s last government.
The Canagrex idea died an ignoble death several years later.
Still, the proposal for a new crown corporation to secure more export market share was perfectly in line with the times. The Trudeau government was transfixed by the idea of “mega-projects” as the growth engine for a faltering economy and Whelan was happy to argue that agriculture was that miracle of miracles, an annual mega-project.
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Farmer marketing power was in the ascendancy. Supply management, despite some rocky moments, had come of age in the previous five years and there was talk of the system being extended to other commodities, including tobacco.
Central desk marketing boards, particularly in hogs but touching other commodities as well, were being formed to negotiate better market returns through managed supply.
The Canadian Wheat Board was politically untouchable, long-term massive grain sales agreements with China and the U.S.S.R. were regular events and the Crow rate grain subsidy still was considered a part of the West’s “Confederation bargain.”
There were some warning clouds on the horizon – inflation was growing and double-digit interest rates would follow, government support systems for market-dependent farmers were not extensive and the livestock industry was about to begin its ill-fated descent into the weak position of being a raw-product supplier for American packers across a political border.
Still, despite complaints that governments didn’t care about farmers and warnings that legions of producers would be driven from the land, the early 1980s were optimistic times for the farm community.
What a difference a quarter century makes.
For years, much of agriculture has been unable to make a living from the marketplace and billions of dollars are routinely required to keep many farmers afloat.
Meanwhile, the concept of farmer marketplace power is on the run, chased by forces of globalization and international trade rules that see government-initiated or farmer-controlled marketers as a blight on trade liberalization.
Most of the single desk marketing boards have been abolished in the interests of making sure processors have access to a steady supply of raw product.
Supply management and the CWB monopoly both are under siege at World Trade Organization talks.
In 25 years, the Ottawa watch has turned from covering debates about how market forces could be brought to heel in farmers’ interests and the extent of government back-up support required, to covering debates over how to make sure Canadian farm support programs conform to international rules that presume a free market is the best market.
And the annual taxpayer bill to fill some of the hole left by inadequate market returns grows into the billions.
Isn’t the passage of time supposed to be about improving the world?
