Category Archives: Agriculture (Rural)

(April 3, 2001) As spring snow fell outside her Saskatoon office this week, Nettie Wiebe — farmer, professor and longtime political activist — was musing about an agricultural apocalypse. Ms. Wiebe grows grain and raises cattle on her family’s 2,000-acre spread in the town of Laura, 70 kilometres outside the city. She is also a leader of Via Campesina, an international movement to promote small-scale farming. Continue reading →

(March 22, 2001) Government intervention has reversed the economics of farming, making large-scale monoculture operations more secure than the family farm, says Urban Renaissance Institute’s Lawrence Solomon. The family farm is inherently economic. Large-scale farming is not. The opposite appears to be the case only because governments reversed the economics of farm production through subsidies, particularly subsidies that reduced the risks that farmers face. Continue reading →

(March 18, 2001) In 1985, New Zealand stopped bailing out farmers. Today, its rural areas are thriving. It’s a ‘brutal process,’ experts say, but it would work in Canada. What if Canada decided to go cold turkey and eliminated all farm subsidies? Would such a decision mark the end of farming in this country? Not a chance. Could it be done? The simple answer is yes. New Zealand eliminated farm subsidies 16 years ago and has a strong agriculture industry today. Continue reading →

(March 15, 2001) Subsidies won’t save Canada’s family farms. Farmers themselves admit that, despite taking to the streets across the country yesterday to demand that governments more than double their latest $500-million aid package. Darrin Qualman, the executive secretary of the National Farmers Union in Saskatoon, says farmers need government aid now to survive, but it is more important for Ottawa to respond to their plight with more than money. Continue reading →