Behind the Lines - January 2016

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Promotion of "local food" has been a widespread trend in various jurisdictions in industrialized regions such as Canada, the United States and Europe.

The demand was certainly there. In Canada, The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, published 10 years ago, was a driver. But how to make it happen was a challenge with supermarket chains geared to deliveries of low-priced commodities produced on mega-farms elsewhere. The provincial government jumped in to promote local food production and, back in June, it indicated it had committed more than $22 million to 163 projects since 2010. Some of the success stories in Ontario are outlined in this month's cover story by writer Mary Baxter.

But, at the same time, the province has cut funding to the Greenbelt Fund, which promoted local food production around the Greater Toronto Area, and has terminated the Local Food Fund. The province says other funding sources are available, but local food projects will find themselves competing against other programs for provincial funding. Baxter's story begins on page 8.

Federally, the new Liberal government recently tasked the country's new agriculture minister with developing "a food policy that promotes healthy living and safe food by putting more healthy, high-quality food, produced by Canadian ranchers and farmers, on the tables of families across the country." That's according to the mandate letter sent to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada minister Lawrence MacAulay.

Starting on page 34, our Parliament Hill columnist Barry Wilson discusses MacAulay's mandate, which he describes as "aspirational" rather than precise. Wilson concludes that agriculture is not a high priority for the new federal government, at least for now.

The use of neonicotinoids is one of the most polarizing issues in rural Ontario now and far too much of that debate is based on emotion. Columnist Dale Cowan argues that, given enough time to test and find the right answers, farmers can adapt to the changing legislative landscape. He says precision agricultural technologies are part of the answer. That column starts on page 20.

Technology keeps marching on in other domains and the Agritechnica show in Europe, the world's largest farm equipment exhibition, exemplifies that. Regular columnist Norman Dunn gives us the rundown on the newest equipment available across the pond and perhaps soon to be in a dealership near you. That story starts on page 23. BF

ROBERT IRWIN & DON STONEMAN