Mike Christie notes: Farming has an Organic Rainbow
Click
Here to Add CommentSubject: Mike Christie notes: Farming has an Organic Rainbow
Date:
Tue, 21 May 2002 09:01:09 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
These farmers, and others like them, see a bright future in Canadian agriculture because they have recognized a fundamental truth of the new agriculture economy: The consumer is king. This obvious fact of life has eluded farm organizations and policymakers for decades. Farmers who are prepared to focus on producing what people want to buy, as opposed to what they feel they have a right to produce, will be the success stories of the future.
The harsh reality is that billion-dollar subsidies to producers in the United States and Europe are culturally and politically permanent aspects of those societies; we should quit whining about it. The real opportunities are endless. We have an aging population obsessed with health and mortality. Give those people what they want -- clean food, organic food, pesticide-free food, traceable food (that is, with labels that inform consumers of processes and additives from "gate to plate").
We have a highly educated population obsessed with the environment. Give those people what they want -- conservation tillage, watershed management, farm environmental planning, effective waste management. We have a politically correct population obsessed by moral and ethical issues. Give those people what they want -- humane animal-welfare practices, vegan food choices, culturally sensitive food-production practices. Every one of these represents a business opportunity in agriculture, and there are hundreds more.
------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 21, 2002 - Print Edition, Page A19
Farming has a rainbow
Statscan says farms are in decline. But the survivors are more innovative than ever, says agrologist ROBERT WILSON
By ROBERT WILSON
Yes, Dorothy, there is a future in farming. Each time Statscan releases new statistics on the state of farming in Canada, one can almost hear the tumbrels rolling as pundits predict the death of the family farm, the end of a way of life, and on, and on, and on.
Make no mistake, as with any enterprise operating in the global marketplace, the production of food and fibre is a risky business. Readers are exposed, on a daily basis, to stories about iniquitous foreign subsidies, panic over genetically modified foods, and plain old bad weather. The statistics also note that margins are narrowing and small and inefficient producers are dropping by the wayside.
These are all entirely normal business conditions and do not in any way reduce the number of opportunities available in the sector. The number of family farms may be going down, but those remaining are getting bigger.
Producers planning to stay in commodity agriculture, wheat for example, have to strive for the lowest production costs possible to compete successfully. This requires a land base large enough for the efficient use of modern technology -- and that's not just bigger tractors!
High-efficiency production on this scale uses space-age technology (such as Global Positioning Systems), to direct precision-farming operations designed to squeeze out the last penny of input cost. Canadian farmers are as good at this as anybody is, and getting better.
Margins will continue to shrink, as they have in every other business, based on mass production. Canadian agriculture has met the challenge of increasing productivity and there is nothing to indicate that we won't continue to do this. The aggregation of smaller operations into larger ones is a natural part of this process.
While, sadly, some farm businesses do go bankrupt and have their assets seized, many more undergo a natural transition. Owners who wish to retire sell their farms to acquire liquidity. Many landowners retain their holdings and rent the land to larger operators and gain annuity income to supplement other earnings.
The point here is that the land itself does not disappear, much of it stays in production on a more profitable basis.
There is also the possibility that some land may go out of production during these transitions. During the settlement of the country, farming was established on thousands of acres of marginal land that were climatically and physically unsuited to agriculture. On the whole, allowing this land to revert to a more natural state or converting it to a higher use is positive and should be encouraged by policymakers.
When I think of the family farm, I think of the Price family's Sunterra Group. They have taken their farm and transformed it into a vertically integrated food production business with the emphasis on quality. Sunterra produces crops and livestock; it processes pork products, including a high value-added specialty line for Japan. Sunterra's crown jewel is a small number of high-quality food stores located in places such as Bankers Hall in Calgary. With their organic produce and catering services, these outlets have established themselves with the well-heeled and quality conscious from corporate Calgary. One member of the family has moved to the city to manage retail operations, putting a whole new spin on the old lament that youth are leaving the farm. Some family, some farm!
These farmers, and others like them, see a bright future in Canadian agriculture because they have recognized a fundamental truth of the new agriculture economy: The consumer is king. This obvious fact of life has eluded farm organizations and policymakers for decades. Farmers who are prepared to focus on producing what people want to buy, as opposed to what they feel they have a right to produce, will be the success stories of the future.
The harsh reality is that billion-dollar subsidies to producers in the United States and Europe are culturally and politically permanent aspects of those societies; we should quit whining about it. The real opportunities are endless. We have an aging population obsessed with health and mortality. Give those people what they want -- clean food, organic food, pesticide-free food, traceable food (that is, with labels that inform consumers of processes and additives from "gate to plate").
We have a highly educated population obsessed with the environment. Give those people what they want -- conservation tillage, watershed management, farm environmental planning, effective waste management. We have a politically correct population obsessed by moral and ethical issues. Give those people what they want -- humane animal-welfare practices, vegan food choices, culturally sensitive food-production practices. Every one of these represents a business opportunity in agriculture, and there are hundreds more.
If you examine the Statistics Canada report on agriculture through this lens, you will see that the transition to the new agriculture is well on the way. Farm sizes are increasing, the transition to higher value-added activity, like livestock, continues to grow, crop diversification is common, 60 per cent of land is conservation tilled and new businesses are entering the sector.
Olds College is Canada's premier agricultural college. We are proud to spend our days with 1,500, mostly rural, young people, many of them itching to get into the agriculture business. We teach them about markets, consumers and technology. They teach us about energy, creativity, optimism, and confidence. Things were never better down on the farm. Robert Wilson, an educator and professional agrologist, has been a teacher and administrator in colleges in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. He is now vice-president academic affairs at Olds College, Olds, Alta.
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=pesticide&option=&start_row=1¤t_row=1&start_row_offset1=&num_rows=1&search_results_start=1
--
Mike Christie
(613) 228-7499 / bus.
(613) 228-7487 / fax.
mikechristie@rogers.com / e-mail
The Laws of Ecology: "All things are interconnected. Everything goes somewhere. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Nature bats last." by Ernest Callenbach
Well Mr. Helliker, Why not give the people what they clearly want? Freedom from your "registered" POISONS. Is that too much to ask in a country that supposedly is "of the people, by the people and for the people"?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, please email us at list@safe2use.com.