A year ago farm country burned with a swirl of farmer anger and frustration.  Into the cross hairs was a Canadian agricultural policy bereft of any substance to stem the flood of red ink.  Many of us took unpaid leave from our farms to work together with others in a focused, aggressive and straight up approach to confronting government on their failed policies.  The question is where are we now?  Where are we going and has government changed at all in this current debate?

It’s a world of difference between last year and now.  Forget the agricultural policy for a minute.  Yes, its different because of that rare air I talked about last week.  Corn prices doubling, attitudes changing and government getting let off the hook by a market, which rocketed up last September.  There is no cauldron of farmer unrest this winter.  No farm rallies, no tractor blockades, no spirited speeches to stir the soul, no nothing.

So what is different?  Yes, there is the ethanol gold rush we all know about.  However one good year out of four for Canada’s grain and oilseed producers doesn’t add up.  Yes, we might be looking at better futures prices ahead over the next three years but that doesn’t excuse what we’ve been through.

Translation—four months of decent corn prices don’t eliminate the problem!  All the tractor rallies, all the cheap hotels and bad food before speeches and all the vitriol of last winter must not go for not.  Canadian farmers still have the same problem as we had last year.  We still don’t have a risk management plan for agriculture, which works.  An agricultural safety net is needed just as much today as it was last year.

It is what it is and that’s no good.  However, at the present time we might and I emphasize might be on the cusp of something good.  When and if an announcement comes I will leave it up to our farm leaders to make it right.  They have done a great job under very difficult conditions.  However, there are a few things, which I need to comment on which I find very, very wrong with the current agricultural policy.

In 2007 I’m sure many of you have taken part in the current round of APF II consultations.  You read my comments about that in previous weeks.  I’ve read many of yours in the farm press.  Not good.  However, what I don’t like is the comment from some of our quasi-agricultural government mandarins who hide behind million-dollar government funded think tanks.  Where were they last year when farmers rallied in the cold?  Even better, where were they a week before the ethanol gold rush started on September 12th?  Believe it or not, some in effect were telling us to put fences around our cornfields and grow brussel sprouts, because that’s what consumers want.

To me it’s all about good agricultural economics.  What some of these well-paid “think tankers” don’t get is the difference between a shift in the demand curve versus moving down it.  Translation to farm country—its all about the vision thing.  What farmers need to do is mostly up to them.  If they want to shoot for the agricultural policy brass ring, reach out and grab it.  Don’t let any quasi-government agricultural mandarin say you can’t.

If you think I’m crazy take a look at Quebec.  Quebec agriculture is highly subsidized because “their society” demands it.  They have core beliefs, which have formed the core of supply management in Quebec.  And as all of you know the core of supply management in Quebec is the backbone of Canadian dairy policy.  They are proud Quebecers, proud farmers and take no prisoners when it comes to their beliefs.  In Ottawa last April 5th, they formed the majority of that rally.  The site of them makes official Ottawa recoil.

Ontario “centric” critics of their agriculture are many.  It’s especially true of OMAFRA in Ontario.  However, Quebec farmers don’t care.  When it comes to Canadian agricultural policy, they are out to win and win big. Their farm leaders never and I say never back down from a fight.  Ontario farmers need to heed that.  Just because the ethanol gold rush burns brightly doesn’t mean a thing for our business risk management needs.  They are the same now as they were last year at the many farm rallies.  Nothing has changed that way.  We still need an agricultural safety net that works.  Getting it and keeping it has surely proved frustrating.