Canada wide grain grower coalition fighting research cuts

Monday, January 17, 2011

by KRISTIAN PARTINGTON

A Canada-wide coalition claiming to represent more than 100,000 grain, oilseed and pulse farmers is voicing its disappointment after Canada’s largest research council announced last week that agriculture will be dropped from its list of priorities.

In a news release issued Friday, Farmers for Investment in Agriculture (FIA,) said the recent decision by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to eliminate food and agriculture as a strategic priority shows a complete disconnect from the reality of the global food supply, today and into the future.

Public research funding, said Grain Growers of Canada President Stephen Vandervalk, has been on the decline, even as various signs of food shortages have been on display across the globe. These cutbacks “have been slowly working their way through the system,” he says. “We’ve been losing researchers and there really haven’t been any new researchers coming along to fill those gaps, at least here in Western Canada.”

Even so, he describes the NSERC decision as “totally out of the blue.”

Earlier this month the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned that a food crisis is imminent as demand outstrips supply on a global scale. It estimates food production must increase by 70 per cent by 2050 to meet the needs of future global populations. FIA believes research is a key component to meeting these future challenges and it’s calling on the NSERC to reconsider its priorities in the allocation of its $1.1 billion budget.

“It’s important to have the private research but it’s equally important to have that public research as well,” said Vandervalk. He’s hopeful the federal government and the council will reverse its decision and look for efficiencies elsewhere.

Producers fund grain and oilseeds research. But Don Kenny, Chair of the Grain Farmers of Ontario, says “farmers have taken existing technology and advanced it as far as we can take it. If we don’t have more research funding then how are we going to move forward…to feed that rising population in 2050? We need the A- base funding increased so we can attract those researchers and keep them working on our issues. Since 1994 it’s been cut, cut, cut…and now for food production to not even be a priority is of grave concern for the industry and society as a whole.”

Like his western colleague, Kenney says he’s optimistic, however, and expects the council will see the error in this decision. “We’ll come at it together and we’ll approach the federal government on this issue, stronger than ever with the 100,000 members we represent with this coalition. Those numbers "gotta count for something.” BF