Behind the Lines - April 2010

Monday, April 5, 2010

There's strength in numbers and that's why Ontario Pork has joined with other troubled farm commodities in lobbying the Ontario government for financial help through the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition. For this month's cover story, writer Don Stoneman looked at that lobby through the eyes of a couple of politically active pork producers from Perth County who look not so much to Queen's Park but to Quebec's agricultural model for a solution. That story starts on page 6.

The producers' plan, developed at the grass roots level, includes short term financial assistance, a risk management program, a cost of production floor price, a matching of production to slaughter capacity, and a round table with a neutral chair.

It's a big reach. Some may characterize it as a dream list. But the industry needs some big solutions. Perhaps more than anything else, it requires governments to realize that, in these times, no neglect can be viewed as benign.

The prolonged crisis in the province's pork industry is matched only by government inaction. As Ontario Pork director Steve Illick points out in the cover story, competitors can raise capital to survive this downturn in ways that small producers can hardly imagine.

At the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministerial meeting, held in Toronto in February, agriculture ministers from across Canada agreed to consult some more with farmers and then talk about a new Business Risk Management Strategy at their next meeting in July.

Some astute observers point out this is the third year in a row they have promised to examine the crisis in agriculture. BP

ROBERT IRWIN