national
farmers union
national
farmers union
SASKATOON, Sask.-"In this country, we don't have an agricultural policy: we have a trade policy that periodically disguises itself and masquerades as an agricultural policy. For farm families, for our environment, for our communities, for our economy, that's not good enough," stated outgoing NFU President Nettie Wiebe.
Alluding to the NFU's Convention theme, Trade as if farmers mattered, Wiebe said: "The current farm crisis is directly related to organizing the trade as if farmers don't matter. We have a crisis and we need help. But also this is an opportunity. This is a sterling opportunity to rethink our agricultural and trade policies altogether."
Wiebe asked: "Who's benefiting from these trade agreements? Whose targets are these? Whose goals are these? Who's being hurt? Is it working? The Americans are threatening to stop imports. They are threatening a seventh investigation of the CWB. So why don't we just reassess what's working here and what isn't and stop talking as if: 'if only we went further in the same direction, maybe it might work'?"
Wiebe cited recent commitments by federal and provincial agriculture ministers to double agri-food exports by early in the next century. This is above and beyond the doubling of exports which occurred between 1989 and 1997. "We've got trade volumes way up...and we've got a farm income crisis. We've doubled our agricultural exports...and, at the same time, net farm income has been stagnant and going down. 1998 net income is down steeply and we've never had so much trade volume," she said.
On speculation on an aid package for farmers, Wiebe stated: "First and foremost, it's not just the size of the package, it's how it is targeted, how it's focused, and whether it's capped that will matter to the vast majority of those farm families who are currently in trouble. Even if governments ante-up $500 million or $1 billion, if its untargeted or its targeted to pigs and acres and bushels, then I am afraid that we will see the vast majority of that public money slurped up by a relatively few big players and only what slops over the edges will end up in the hands of the people who really need it."
Wiebe closed on a hopeful note, citing the NFU successes at home and internationally. She stated: "One of my great satisfactions has been that the farmers Union has been broad-minded enough and forward-looking enough to understand all this propaganda around globalization and the need to be in the global economy. We've sorted that out quite carefully and said 'whoa!' The way the global agricultural economy is structured right now, the only really global players are the transnational corporations. We're going to go out there and we're going to build solidarity links with our counterparts-peasants and farming people around the world who share our values and have our sort of commitment to the land and to communities-and that's how we're going to build a global alliance. Watch us!"
The NFU Convention continues in Saskatoon until December 5.
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