How we do agriculture in Canada has intrigued governments, agricultural universities and farmers from all corners of the world.
When Mikhail Gorbachev was head of agriculture in Russia, he spent 10 days in Canada in 1984 with Eugene Whelan (then agriculture minister in Canada) as his host.
The Russian leader was very intrigued by the grocery store shelves in Canada. They were always full and Canada had such a small population of farmers.
Russia had some of the largest, most productive grain growing areas in the world but often store shelves were empty. The land had the capacity to grow, but the logistics to get the crops off, stored properly and transported in a timely manner to market was not perfected.
When a delegation of farmers, university representatives and government officials from China visited Canada a few years ago they were extremely interested in high-tech greenhouse production because vegetables can be grown year round in greenhouses where temperature, moisture, heat and even light can be computer controlled, optimizing food production per acre in an extremely populated country.
The Chinese also asked endless questions about how Canadian farm organizations could influence government decisions and how they monitored things like production costs for every little expense and also monitor the food processing, transportation costs and even retailing costs of all kinds of foods.
While farmers and consumers like stable prices which allow farmers to plan ahead, (dairy and meat production can be predicted several years in advance but if prices of dairy and meat change, it can take farmers several years to adjust production) food traders and merchants like fluctuating prices. This allows them to cash in on both the up and the down prices. Some foods with a long shelf life like grains, cheeses, coffee, and some frozen foods can be bought at low prices by these food traders and sold at a high profit when consumer prices go up. Sometimes artificial shortages or surpluses are created just for the purpose of increasing profits.
When visited by delegates from under developed countries, they are overwhelmed by the complexity of animal rations and the high production of all farms in Canada.
In Canada we forget that on the majority of the farms in the world farmers cannot afford chemical sprays, fertilizers or even hybrid grain varieties because they must keep their own grain to reseed the next season. (Seed kept from a hybrid grain will not produce the same high quality, high yielding crop when replanted.)
Some countries where an earthquake, drought or war has left the country starving for food will not even accept GMO or hybrid grain offered freely to their starving population in case some of the seeds are kept and planted in a climate where they will not survive. They might also require special sprays that they cannot afford or maybe some pollen from this unprofitable crop in their country might cross contaminate native crops causing even more famine and hardship.
In many of these under developed countries farmers are very interested in co-ops and farm organizations who can help these farmers learn how to work together to get a fair price for their produce, acquire sustainable production techniques that will allow them to increase production and avoid being manipulated by some unscrupulous company trying to get them hooked into a production system that will bring financial ruin. Some of these farmers greatest threats are free food offered by countries with a surplus.
Often an increase of free goods will put local farmers who produce the same product out of business because the public that receive the free food will quit buying similar local products.
In some of these countries, the governments are so corrupt that this free food is siphoned off by officials and very little gets to those who really need it. It is much more beneficial to train the local farmers in basic agricultural practices so that their local production increases than it is to continuously send food aid. It is difficult to convince these underdeveloped countries to plan ahead with a long-term food plan and maintain some grain bank or keep some non-perishable food stored ahead for bad years when every year that same country is short of food.
Just last year Canada was visited by a group of farmers from an open market country where a year of catastrophic low prices followed several good years. The farmers who came were those who sold all their animals, rented their land and used some of that money banked in the good years to investigate how Canadian farmers could keep a stable price year in, year out. This year the country where those farmers came from is doling out millions of dollars of farmer aid to those who did not sell off, but decided to try and stick it out.
Last year we also hosted a delegation from another free market country and after some entertainment and cool drinks, these folks tried to sell the benefits of a free trading market compared to Canada’s long term planning and some supply management. Just this last month that country was pleased to announce a bailout package for their farmers and some projections of better days ahead. (There were no active farmers in that delegation.)
There is presently a group of Canadians working with a group from the north eastern United States. These farmers, academics and government officials all share a vision of increasing agricultural tourist trade, new sustainable technology and promotion of agricultural profit and growth in both countries.
The agricultural world is a work in progress and this generation will not solve all the problems but Canadian farmers are proud to be involved.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon
on land that has been in his
family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
