It is called “the Peace”.  For the last three days it’s been my home, having been invited to northern Alberta to speak to the Association of Alberta Agricultural Fieldmen.  “The Peace” refers to the Peace River region of northern Alberta, one of the most northerly places for agricultural production in Canada.

For a farm boy from southwestern Ontario, it was quite a shock as the plane landed in Grande Prairie Alberta.  I had left green grass several hours before.  The plane was engulfed by snow as we landed.  I stepped out into –30 degree Celsius temperatures.  The pioneer feel to the place was palatable.  I knew I was a long way from everything that I’ve ever known.

The Alberta Agricultural Fieldmen are responsible for enforcing four different pieces of legislation enacted by the Alberta government.  I think of them this way.  They are the “shock troops” of Alberta agriculture, aiding Alberta farmers in a myriad of tasks to foster a healthy agricultural economy.

Grande Prairie was a culture shock.  However, I also think I heard the term “Alberta Redneck” almost fifty times as I intermixed with the many farmers who doubled as Alberta fieldmen at their in service training.  I was almost like a specimen.  It was almost like they were testing me.  Why was this “liberal easterner” here and how would he react to the views of Alberta?

To my utter amusement I was introduced as an “eastern Liberal” to this all Alberta audience.  I’ve learned to roll with the punches and this was no different.  I got up and told them all I knew about biofuel, the ethanol gold rush, the rise in commodity prices, changes in Canadian agricultural policy and how Alberta must adjust.  At the end of the day, I think they liked this strange “eastern guy”.

The Peace region itself is very interesting.  Like the rest of Alberta it is undergoing a boom, which is overwhelming.  There are people arriving everyday into an oil patch in overdrive.  I’ve always wondered how they kept Alberta farm boys down on the farm, and after visiting Grande Prairie its pretty obvious they can’t.  There is just too much money chasing too few resources in Alberta.  “The Peace” might be full of beautiful canola grown in 20 hours of summer daylight, however the real story around here is about the oil boom.  From an eastern perspective its like you can smell the money in the air.

Into this mix are the Alberta agricultural fieldmen who actually try to sustain an agricultural industry, which is being dominated by the oil patch.  It’s a tough balance because the energy sector is so overwhelming.  However over a three-day period I was able to pick up a few unique problems the fieldmen were dealing with.

One of the biggest emerging problems in Alberta canola country is clubroot disease.  This fungus has been showing up in Alberta canola fields.  It is spread by soil borne movement.  It is in its infancy in Alberta, only present in certain central regions of Alberta.  Of course everybody is alarmed because canola prices are quite high now.  There is much canola grown after canola and that isn’t good for clubroot eradication.  The AAAF is entrusted to making sure infected fields are not put back into canola in 2008.

There are also big issues with cattle and hogs in Alberta not unlike Ontario.  For instance up in “the Peace” there is much controversy about big hog operations polluting the Peace River.  It has become so controversial that even some schools are weighing their options about closing on certain days because of the smell of hogs.  Ditto for almost everywhere across the province.  Even in “40 mile”, the most remote southeastern county in Alberta nobody wants a pig barn in their back yard.

The story of Alberta beef is an interesting one.  “Feedlot Alley” the huge feedlot area near Picture Butte, Alberta is definitely reeling over the high Canadian dollar, high feeds costs and low beef prices.  Much of that beef has been shifted into Nebraska where it is being corn fed.  The theory is for the “Alberta beef” to push greater gain on corn at a time when feeding them in Alberta makes little sense.  One agricultural fieldmen told me he’s been down in Montana over the last couple of weeks and there were lots of transports with Alberta plates full of cattle going south.

One of my points I pushed in Grande Prairie was Alberta’s potential for a vibrant biodiesel industry.  However, at the present time Alberta doesn’t have any “alternative fuel” policy like they have in the United States, Europe and provinces like Ontario.  It would seem a natural to me with all that Alberta canola.  However I didn’t cause much of a ripple.  It would seem at ground zero within Canadian oil country, Albertans would rather burn up oil.

I hope to go back to Alberta someday.  However, inviting an “eastern Liberal” to speak in the heart of Conservative Alberta is akin to getting an embarrassing rash.  Thankfully everybody laughed about it.  I’m no eastern Liberal, as all of you will surely know, at least not in the philosophical sense.  However, I’m a much richer farmer for my experience in Alberta this past week.  We’ve got a great country here full of diverse and interesting opinions about agriculture.  It’s too bad we couldn’t get those opinions together more often.