The Rural Voice, 2002-02, Page 28The hard edge of change
Farming is evolving into a much bigger scale tha
currently envisioned. Are farmers, politicians and
the public ready to deal with the new reality?
For the past several years it has
been absolutely impossible to
pick up any trade publication
without coming across at least one
article about change – changes in
technology, changes in markets,
changes in practices, changes in
everything. Even the names of the
magazine are likely to be different
from what it was in the previous
month's issue. I have become so tired
of hearing about change that the word
has become almost meaningless, a
synonym for "so what" – more
closely representing a status quo than
anything worth writing about or
reading about.
Well today, I am looking at a pile
of those same trade magazines, most
of them American, on the corner of
my desk, along with numerous pieces
of mail, and wondering if it is safe to
open them. Now, THAT is change.
So, as of today, I have officially
replaced (in my own vocabulary) the
word "change" with the word
"evolve" and the word "changing"
with the word "evolving". I don't
think we will ever stand still long
enough again to be able to hold the
measuring tape of life up against
what was.
The "Evolving" that I do not like:
I think it's over — the way we
were raised, the people we worked
with and trusted are gone. Over the
next 10 years Ontario's farm scale
will increase dramatically. Costs will
escalate high enough to sort out small
farms. Negativity and resentment
towards large farms will increase,
while support for large farms
declines. Municipal amalgamations
24 THE RURAL VOICE
A commentary by Mervyn' Erb
have reduced the influence of the
farm vote. Municipal councillors will
strategize to mute members who
support farm issues. Councillors will
prefer to cope with one or two mad
farmers rather than 200 irate voters.
The rights of the minority and the
rights of the individual will continue
to go down the drain. Farm
organizations will continue to be
driven by the views of mostly small-
scale producers. Large-scale
producers don't usually have the time
and many have other side -ventures,
further reducing available time for
farm organization involvement.
Farming is now a bitter, cut-throat
survival of the fittest. Politics and
small farmers commonly oppose farm
expansions, often due to resentment,
jealousy or envy. Farm managers
need to work together with farms of
similar scale or larger scale to
manage policy, public opinion, input
cost and marketing opportunities. The
media and politics are the ox and
plow farm managers must learn to
drive.
The ag economy has developed a
low-cost food factory assembly line
similar to Henry Ford's auto
assembly line. The demand for
uniformity of slaughter size, loin size,
broiler size, etc. has resulted in the
"assembly line" concept. In the years
following Ford's assembly line, there
was a major consolidation in the auto
industry. There were over 50 Ontario -
built brands of automobiles around
1900. Canada Cycle & Motor (CCM)
built cars in Toronto. Ford's success
and cost-cutting efficiencies sent
CCM into a tailspin that landed them
in the sports equipment industry.
Farm families are caught in a similar
tail spin. They will need to make
decisions that make as much sense to
them now as making hockey sticks
instead of engines did to CCM 80
years ago.
As most farmers enjoy the
production side of agriculture, many
will not like the adversarial, political,
re -structuring, re -sizing, and re-
learning side of this new style
agriculture and will opt for something
else or opt out altogether.
The bickering that I do not like:
The other far more troubling
situation, is the sense I have gained
over the past several months, that
there has been a hardening of
attitudes towards supply management
in general. I now regularly hear
comments to the effect that "If we
can't get a level playing field with the
U.S., let's get one here in Ontario."
This leads me to believe that
Canadian agricultural policy is in
really big trouble, and that the trouble
is coming from within.
In that while Canadian supply
managed farmers enjoy an absolute
advantage over their U.S.
counterparts, Canadian grains and
oilseeds farmers are at an absolute
disadvantage to their U.S.
counterparts, and have been so, for
over three years. And at the same
time for the past three years,
Canadian supply managed farmers
have been at an absolute advantage to
Canadian grains and oilseeds farmers,
when it comes to buying, or even
renting, farmland. Don't get me
wrong folks, the products of supply