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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Top Issues in Ontario Agriculture
  • Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 13:55:34 -0600


Corner Post #378
Farm & Countryside Commentary by Elbert van Donkersgoed
Top Issues in Ontario Agriculture

The Executive of the Christian Farmers Federation and Agminister Steve
Peters met to discuss some of the top issues in Ontario agriculture last
week: financial aid, restructuring the place of family farmers in the food
chain, environmental payments, local processing and local market
development
and replacement of the Nutrient Management Act.

CFFO endorsed federal and provincial efforts to deliver immediate financial
aid for struggling farm families at a time of 25-year lows in commodity
prices. The conversation focused on the need for firm family farm-sized
caps
on assistance so that public monies are targeted to provide real help for
many farm families rather than a few large firms. Frustrations with the
startup of the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program were
aired.

CFFO called for an equal place and partnership role for family farmers in
the food chain. Restructuring the food chain is the long-term answer to
farm
income problems --- an end to family farmers pushed into supply chains and
reduced to being price takers. Ontario's farm products marketing
legislation
needs to be upgraded to value chain legislation in which farmers are equal
partners with all those in the value chain, with the right to negotiate a
fair share of the consumer dollar.

CFFO criticized emerging legislation that demands that farmers provide
environmental goods and services for the rest of society without paying for
them: the Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt Act, new land use restrictions on
private property under the Planning Act, the Endangered Species Act and the
Nutrient Management Act. The food marketplace does not pay for these
environmental goods and services. Instead, our countryside needs a system
of
annual whole farm payments when farmers maintain and expand ecological
services. The regulatory approach is out of sync with the character of the
self-help countryside while the payment method will deliver superior
pollution prevention and a vibrant countryside with enhanced watershed
services, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, increased tree cover, greenhouse
gas reduction and the protection of natural capital.

CFFO welcomed recent efforts to expand livestock processing in Ontario and
urged more projects to create enough hook space for all our cull cows, and
to develop federally inspected facilities for lamb and veal. Support for
processing needs to be linked to local market development. CFFO called for
an import replacement program that redirects farming resources from
traditional bulk production to specialty products for growing ethnic
markets.

CFFO endorsed the call for the suspension of the Nutrient Management Act
and
provided Minister Peters with background on the debate in the Ontario Farm
Environmental Coalition that has led to a broad-based consensus that the
Nutrient Management Act is deeply flawed. CFFO supports a three-part
replacement: a few but sensible provincial rules, a more comprehensive risk
assessment for all farms, and action plans that are cost-shared and
watershed-based.

CFFO and the Minister agreed to meet again in three months.
__________
At
www.christianfarmers.org/sub_policies_and_issues/cffo_list_speters_ag_items.

pdf you can find a complete list of CFFO's top 10 agricultural issues.

Elbert van Donkersgoed P. Ag. (Hon.) is the Strategic Policy Advisor of the
Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, Canada. Corner Post is heard
weekly
on CFCO Radio, Chatham and CKNX Radio, Wingham, Ontario. Corner Post has a
complimentary email subscriber list of more than 3,500 and appears
regularly
on Agriculture Online/Views at www.agriculture.com/ag/views/ and as "Letter
from Ontario" on The New Farm website at www.newfarm.org. CFFO is supported
by 4,300 family farmers across Ontario. Corner Post is archived on the CFFO
website:
www.christianfarmers.org/sub_news_commentaries/sub2_news_com_corner_post/new

s_com_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.






  • [Livingontheland] Top Issues in Ontario Agriculture, Tradingpost, 04/13/2005

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