The Rural Voice, 1981-05, Page 15A licence to farm? Don't laugh
by Sheila Gunby
"Can 1 see your licence."
"My licence?"
"Uh huh."
"What licence?"
"Your licence to farm, of course."
Sounds far fetched? According to Prof. Neil Stoskopf, OAC,
university of Guelph, licencing farmers is a possibility. He's not
sure he likes the idea but says it's the direction we're heading,
particularly with the controls we have now.
"It's not a popular concept to have to qualify to farm. or to be
re-examined." he stated at a recent farmers' meeting in
Chatham. But Stoskopf said farmers took the concept very well
because they are actually licenced now.
"You can't milk cows unless you have a quota from the milk
marketing board. You can't sell eggs unless the egg producers
say you can. The tobacco board gives you the right to grow
tobacco." he says, "So already we have a form of licencing in
place.
Here's a case in point. The Prince Edward Island Hog
Producers Marketing Board has power, granted to them by the
provincial government, to give licences to farmers. They limit
issuance of a licence to "bona fide" farmers; defined as farmers
spending at least 50 per cent of the time on the farm and deriving
50 per cent of their income from farming. A further limit is
imposed by the number of hogs a farmer is allowed to raise. A
licence is good for 4,000 hogs and 200 sows. Any farmer meeting
these specifications can get a licence.
There are other ways farmers are restricted. Farm expansion
is controlled by building regulations with a certificate of
compliance regulating the distance farm buildings can be built in
proximity to other houses in the immediate area. Farmers are
controlled by regulations governing manure disposal, particular-
ly in farming enterprises near residential areas.
Inflated land prices and increased interest rates will prevent
many farmers from farming and owning their own land. Stoskopf
said immigrants coming to Canada. did so to get away from the
feudal system. "The right to own land was a big attraction,"
he says, "But I can't sec huss ..c can cuuunuc Lu atloid our ow•n
land."
Not owning land will be another adjustment farmers may have
to contend with. But will that mean loss of control? Who will own
the land? Who will have the right to farm it?
In Saskatchewan. a Land Bank Commission was established in
1972 to help the family farm in its struggle for survival. This
concept- a foodland trust- came to the fore in the recent
provincial election. Is this a realistic alternative to the high price
of land ownership? Would the ordinary"farmer become a "farm
manager?"
Stoskopf assures us we can still have a family farm without
owning the land. Most farmers own some land. he says and rent
the rest even now.
Jake Atkinson of Purdue University. in a recent article in
FARMFUTURES, stated, "We need to admit to the club of
successful family farmers those who own little or none of the land
they farm."
Stoskopf says that theoretically to qualify for a licence, a
farmer would be required to maintain the quality and viability of
the land.
Conservation of farmland and good land use practices would
cnter the picture.
"If a farmer doesn't clean up. he'll be told how to look after his
land -in essence, it will be a form of licencing."
John Hazlitt, a Huron county farmer and recipient of the
Norman Alexander Conservation Award, in a recent article in the
Huron Soil and Crop News said "farmers arc guilty of varying
degrees of contributing to soil erosion."
fie adds "1 believe by 1990 farmers will be legislated by law as
to what type of crops we can grow, on what per cent slopes and
when, where and how they dispose of animal wastes." Further,
we will need a licence to farm, unless of course, we clean up our
act.
Can you envision a licence to carry around in your wallet,
stating you can farm because you are young, have the
educational requirements. financial backing and the manage-
ment skills proving you can manage the farm?
It's not impossible.
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THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1981 PG. 13