“A country that cannot feed itself is a very weak country.”
During World War II the thought was instilled in the mind of every European when their food supply was cut off by the enemy and any good food found was quickly channeled to the opposition’s army.
After World War II was over, those countries swore that they would never starve again. Europe has never left themselves at the mercy of other countries to supply them with food since.
About 20 years ago, Quebec farmers started a campaign to sensitize the Quebec Government about the importance of food security. The Food Sovereignty Campaign soon spread to Ontario and Canada’s other provinces.
A few years later, Quebec moved a motion at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting that Canada adopt a strategic food policy. This motion was adopted unanimously by every province and everyone in the room. Since that time, we have witnessed many changes in our representatives at all levels of government.
When we make frequent visits to grocery stores with shelves loaded with every kind of food that we can dream of in both summer and winter, we can easily forget the importance of an abundant food supply. We forget that there is less than a week’s supply of some foods in either the grocery stores or the warehouses that supply them.
We have recently noticed some of our Canadian food bargained off in trade negotiations for access to marketing of car parts, oil, intellectual property or some other inedible product. Since the FTA was penned by Mulroney, our federal governments have traded away access to 20 per cent of Canada’s dairy market.
In recent trade negotiations, our friendly leader south of the border has lost so much dairy market that US dairy farmers are quitting in droves and sending thousands of their hard working dairy cows to slaughter. There are so many US dairy cows going to the abattoirs that the price of beef has tanked and in turn has lowered the price of beef in Canada to the same prices as when we had the mad cow problem 15 years ago. In March 2019, good cows were selling for $50 and after the auctions were over small veal calves that were not sold were euthanized.
A few months ago when the US upset China, we witnessed China stopping soybean imports and hence causing soybean prices to drop drastically. This cost soybean producers billions of dollars.
The Canadian farmer’s latest disaster was when our largest buyer of canola stopped purchases because they claim to have discovered a beetle in the canola grain. Coincidentally, this embargo on Canadian canola came a short time after Canada detained a Chinese cellphone manufacturing executive.
Half a century ago (in the 1960s) North America began to transfer its agricultural research and development from government and university control to private industry because it was more economical and private industry seemed to have more money to attract the best scientists. They had the most money because they only developed sprays, drugs, seeds and procedures that they could sell at a healthy profit. As a result, China is now recognized as the world leader in basic agricultural research. US agricultural researchers conceded this fact themselves.
Trading agricultural grains, meats, dairy products and other foods has become one of the world’s most lucrative businesses. This is a simple business. Farm products are purchased for a low price in one country and sold for a higher price in another. Sometimes these traders encourage governments to keep prices low so those products will be easier to sell in another country. Many grains and other foods are now produced and offered for sale at prices less than the cost to produce them.
Some countries compensate their farmers for producing at less than the C.O.P. The last US farm bill exceeded $1.3 trillion US. It’s the lowly taxpayer who has to cough up all that money.
Canadian wheat was for decades acknowledged as the best wheat in the world. Recently a prominent farm journal announced that now Canadian wheat had slipped to number four. More productive but lower quality wheat is now grown in Canada. For decades, Canadian wheat was dried naturally in the sun before harvest. Most Canadian wheat is now chemically desiccated before harvest. Some of our former wheat buyers are now exporting the same naturally dried wheat that Canada was famous for.
We will soon be bombarded with wannabe MPs promising God knows what. If you have a chance to encounter any of these future MPs ask them what their plan is for food sovereignty and maybe how much food is in storage?
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
