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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Stewardship by Regulation?

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org, Homestead-Work@yahoogroups.com
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Stewardship by Regulation?
  • Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 22:17:00 -0600


Slow down.

It should be obvious that my posting an item does not imply endorsement of
everything in it, or else I wouldn't find anything I could post at all. In
this case I posted to my Living On The Land list for information only.

As it happens, people in a rush to demonize Canada usually have no clue how
overregulated our own agriculture is by government and corporate finance. Our
recent "Freedom to Farm" hype turned out (again) to be giving free rein to
corporate finance to further monopolize the food we eat and drive remaining
family farms to the brink.

More to the point of that post, I agree the regulation looks restrictive and
undesirable, but compare it to the system Canada (and the U.S.) live under
now. There's so much wrong already that more regulating could hardly do more
harm. By contrast, I favor getting corporations out of the food business,
which will make some long overdue breathing room for family farms and bring
new life to rural communities.


paul tradingpost@gilanet.com

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Henry David Thoreau

That is well said, replied Candide, but we must cultivate our garden.
--Voltaire [Francois-Marie Arouet] Candide

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 8/11/2003 at 9:53 PM Jonathan Linowes wrote:

>Oh my god! I'm thankful I don't live in Canada. (its sounds more like The
>Peoples Republic of Canada).
>
>Look at all these frightening words: "regulations", "certifying",
>"approving", "enforcement", "upgraded computer program" (you're going to
>regulate farmers with a computer program???!!!), "just a small step",
>"accomodate the many ways [of farming]" (how presumptuous!), "this is not
>the first or the only layer of the regulated approach", "paper trail needed
>to demonstrate compliance", ...
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
>To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 2:51 PM
>Subject: [Livingontheland] Stewardship by Regulation?
>
>
>
>Corner Post
>Farm & Countryside Commentary by Elbert van Donkersgoed
>August 5, 2003
>
>Slowly, the road to better stewardship on Ontario farms is shifting to
>regulations.
>
>Last week, at an information session for farm leaders involved in the
>Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture
>and Food introduced many of the steps it is taking to implement the
>Nutrient
>Management Act. Staff is in place for education and training, for advising
>farmers, for certifying applicators, for approving nutrient management
>plans
>and for enforcement. OMAF staff demonstrated an upgraded version of the
>nutrient management computer program. The transition from municipal rules
>to
>provincial standards officially starts on September 30.
>
>It has been a long road to provincial regulations. It is also just a small
>first step. It will net a small number of farmers: the larger livestock
>farms with more than 300 nutrient units and those that are starting new
>livestock sites.
>
>This new approach to stewardship - stewardship by provincial regulation -
>faces some major challenges.
>
>First, Ontario agriculture is so diverse that every rule must be both
>detailed and flexible, to accommodate the many ways in which we do the
>business of farming. There are at least one hundred different kinds of
>livestock or livestock groupings, each needing some specific attention in
>the rules. The inevitable result? 300 pages of regulations and protocols.
>OMAF has promised 120 to 150 accessory fact sheets.
>
>Second, this is not the first or the only layer of the regulated approach
>to
>stewardship. Minimum distance separations already exist. Source water
>protection is under discussion. Soon agriculture's contribution to
>greenhouse gas emissions will need a management approach. Each layer adds
>complexity to farm management.
>
>Third, this issue remains: how to bring the thousands of small and moderate
>size farms under the act. The biggest change on many of these farms will be
>the paper trail needed to demonstrate compliance with the act. Compliance
>with regulations, by its very nature, takes time and money, even if there
>is
>no significant gain in environmental stewardship.
>
>Fourth, if farmers take only a due diligence approach, hire professionals
>to
>craft nutrient management plans, and delegate monitoring to certified
>applicators, what will we gain? Environmental stewardship is most
>meaningful
>when it is both a commitment and an integral part of day-to-day farm
>management. Commitment and regulations are often poles apart.
>
>If I could make just one change in this program... I would send neither the
>300-page regulation/protocol document nor the fact sheets to any farmer.
>Rather, to every farmer brought under the provincial rules I would send a
>well-trained advisor with a simple mandate: help farmers write their own
>nutrient management plans. In the process train them to think stewardship
>and challenge them to environmental commitment.
>__________
>Elbert van Donkersgoed is the Strategic Policy Advisor of the Christian
>Farmers Federation of Ontario, Canada. Corner Post can be heard weekly on
>CFCO Radio, Chatham and CKNX Radio, Wingham, Ontario. Corner Post has an
>email subscriber list of more than 3,000 and appears regularly on @g
>Worldwide Correspondents at
>www.agriculture.com/worldwide/correspondents/index.html. Corner Post is
>archived at www.christianfarmers.org/commentary/Corner-Post.htm. To be
>added
>to the electronic distribution list of Corner Post send email to
>evd@christianfarmers.org with SUBSCRIBE as the message. To remove your
>name,
>send email with UNSUBSCRIBE as the message.
>
>
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