The Hill: Hungry Canadians need government action now

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The recession in rural, urban and industrial Ontario has created a crisis for those dependent on food handouts and those at the forefront want the taxman to level the playing field.

by BARRY WILSON

This column is mainly about Ontario's poor and how problems in the agricultural economy in Ontario made their lives worse.

But first, a word from the sponsors of the view that life is pretty darn good down on the farm.

In late 2009, Agriculture Canada published its annual survey of farm financial statistics that suggested many farmers were doing better last year.

True, debt levels rose but so did assets.

In Ontario, Canada's largest farm economy but also one of its most under-performing in recent years, the statistics showed farm incomes beginning to rebound.
So far, so good.

And across the country, the analysis suggested that farm families are better off than their non-farm and urban neighbours.

Farm household income was higher than their non-farm rural neighbours, in most cases entirely due to off-farm income.

And the federal analysis argued that when net worth is taken into consideration, the median net worth of farm families in 2005 was $691,000 compared to $148,000 for non-farm families.

This should give fodder to those urban and conservative analysts who complain that farmer arguments for better program support is misplaced since they are doing just fine, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, the percentage of farm family income coming from the farm is in constant decline.

But enough about the statistical portrait of rural Canada as a land wealth. In truth, rural Ontario is a land of milk and honey, producer of valuable quantities of food and wealth, whatever the state of farm finances.

But behind that picture, in rural and urban Ontario there is the often-hidden spectre of poverty and hunger.

The story is told in a report from the Ontario Association of Food Banks, which revealed late last year that the recession in rural, urban and industrial Ontario created a crisis for those dependent on food handouts, both rural and urban.

Part of the problem was poverty on many Ontario farms (not really reflected in the Agriculture Canada statistics) and damage to the food-manufacturing sector during the recession of 2009.

"In Ontario, we have witnessed an overall decline in food donations this year, in part due to the closure of more than 10 major food manufacturers who have suffered the same hardships as the province's manufacturing sector in the past 18 months," the Ontario food banks association reported in late 2009.

Food donations in the year declined by one million pounds. Portions to hungry families were rationed.

"Food banks in Ontario have been forced to get creative," said the year-end report.

"Relationships with local farmers are becoming more common. Donations and the gleaning of farmers' fields after they have been harvested have led to increased amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables making their way into Ontario's food banks this fall."

In this land of plenty, picking up the dregs from farmers' fields sounds outrageous.
Yet the food banks' lobby is trying to encourage this by making food donations from farmers and processors tax deductible. Government has not yet agreed.

With fields across the country dedicated to tax-deductible contributions to the worthy overseas efforts of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, it seems strange that domestic contributions would not be treated the same way.

And in this land of milk and honey, savaging for leftovers in farmers fields sounds too Charles Dickens for 2010. BF

Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.