Putting Canada First

[cakadu]

I don't know how many of you have had a chance to see the new Ag Policy Framework that the federal government is flogging, but you can find it at:

http://www.agr.gc.ca/cb/apf/index_e.html

or you can look under the headlines here at Agri-ville and link up that way.

I don't disagree that these should be priority areas, but it seems to me that once you get looking into some of their plan a knot in your stomach appears and a bit of uneasiness sets in if you're a producer. It seems to me that the costs of an awful lot of the plan will be downloaded onto producers and their already thin margins cannot take much more in the way of costs.

How do you feel about the plan and how innovative do you think it is? I'm curious to know.

[dalek]

Does it strike you as strange that this framework already exists when they're just now doing the consultation to develop it?

[cowman]

I plowed through the site and the one thing I thought of was "They should provide a fork in here to shovel out all the B.S.!! This whole thing is typical government smoke and mirrors. They don't intend to do anything for the farming community. People need to give up the idea that the government is their friend. They aren't...they are your enemy!
A typical Government gong show! Just like the Kyota deal. First of all they have to reduce green house gasses, right? So lets tax the hell out of the energy industry. Now the energy sector just passes that down to you and me so we pay through the nose everytime we fill up. And all the big polluters can go out and buy tax credits so they don't have to really do anything...it's just the cost of doing business and they pass that cost onto the consumer. So what has changed? Absolutely nothing other than the government has extracted billions more out of the taxpayers and consumers...which I would suggest was the real reason in the first place!! Then they can take that money and distribute it to their fellow crooks! Talk about organized crime!!
And this new farm bill is no different...it is designed to extract more money for our mafia -like government! There will be less real net money in your pocket. Yes we will spend a lot of money on research and public relations and smoke and mirrors! We will be told the Canadian farmer is loved by the government and is being supported big time! And about another half of them will go broke! Why? Because we have one big parasite sucking the blood out of us and it is the federal government!!!

[countryguy]

I just took a quick look at the site and(i could get shot for saying this)I don't think it is all that bad.I think their intentions and long term goals are right.I think working with these guidelines really could put Canada on top in food quality,but whether the rest of the world will be willing to pay for it is another story.

I also totally agree with their reasoning of not wanting to give a big handout check to everyone.The fact is that many farmers got themselves into bad financial shape by being poor business men?Buying up all the land in site and having the biggest,newest machinery out there.I see it everywhere.I also see that some of these biggest farmers are some of the poorest farmers.They have so much ground to cover that they slap it in any old way at all and only get half a crop out of the deal.Might as well only be farming half the acres and have half the expense.Why should the Canadian taxpayer have to bail these kind of farms out?So they can be bailed out again in 5 years?

Another thing farmers have to realize is that we are never going to get financial assistance of ANY kind until every last dollar is cleaned out of every last nisa account in Canada.

Very sorry if I have offended anyone.

[rodbradshaw]

There is nothing wrong with the policy but it is being implemented with out consultation. Food Safety and the enviromental issues are already be implemented with out a lot of information getting to the grassroots producer so that they can get a running start. Instead it is going to be like the way this government implemented gun control. These are the deadlines and too bad if you can't get ready in time.

The food safety is being copied from the European model. They have had so many food scares that people have little confidence and one incident can send them crashing over the cliff. We have been luckier in NA and are not as on edge.

I hope that Van Clief puts some money up front to facilitate training and knowledge, if the producer has to pay it will weed out another group of producers.
We have seen it in southern Alberta in the potato business alreay. If you are not of a certain scale you won't get a contract and therefore can't grow potatoes.
Rod

[cakadu]

The fact that there won't be money to offset some of this for the producer is the part that concerns me. Producers keep gettign forced to jump through more and more hoops - at their expense - and it just doesn't pencil out too readily anymore.

Information and technology transfer are key to having these things work and it must be conveyed in a usable manner to producers.

The other concern I have it this idea of "get big" or "get out". I don't understand why we can't have a number of operations doing things a number of ways. What is the purpose in being either really big ie feedlots or really small ie niche markets? There is a lot of room in between.

The way I see this in the future is that it is going to come down to a matter of policy, not economics. I am having trouble with this whole notion of environmental farm plans, on farm food safety etc., which have all come about basically as a result of these huge players in the marketplace, who want to export. How could we implement a system that allows for someone who doesn't ever want to export, but sell to the domestic market as well as these huge players who do want to export and still maintain high food safety and quality standards?

A direct marketer has far less food safety concerns than someone who sells to the feedlot who sells to the processor and so forth down the line. My product goes from me to the processor to the customer. If there is ever a problem recall is short and simple and traceability is quick.

The costs and restrictions that some of these plans are going to be quite prohibitive. How do you see balancing the system?

[rodbradshaw]

Unfortunaletly the pressure is coming from within the system. Food buyers want their life to be easy. They don't want to have to deal with a whole bunch of Tom, Dick and Harry's and making sure that they have a HACCP system and auditing that system.It is easier to buy from the large producer-processor who has staff and theorietically follows the plan that is in place. From my experience doing my Nuffield, most processors and Supermarkets want to deal with two to three major suppliers. It then passes the responsiblility on to these suppliers to make sure that the product arrives on the right time, in the right condition and at the right price. This is where value chains started from as small producers had to align themselves to remain in the marketplace. There is still room for the small producer but they are going to have to give up some independence or they are going to have to do a lot of head butting to get ahead.