national
farmers union
national
farmers union
SWIFT CURRENT, Sask.-"Realized Net Income in Saskatchewan for 1998 and 1999 combined will be essentially zero. Federal and provincial politicians have taken away the Crow Benefit, promoted hog expansion 'til the bottom dropped out, and signed NAFTA and WTO agreements that leave Canadian farmers defenseless in the face of multi-billion dollar U.S. and EU subsidy programs. These policies certainly have helped create the present disaster," said NFU Saskatchewan Coordinator Stewart Wells.
Federal Government income projections released in conjunction with Wednesday's meeting in Ottawa show that Realized Net Farm Income for Saskatchewan averaged $596 million per year in the 1993-97 period. It is projected at just $189 million for 1998 and $169 million for 1999-for a two-year average of just $10 million annually. "Realized net income in Saskatchewan has not been as low as $189 million since 1955 and it has not been negative since 1932," said Wells.
Wells pointed out that; "In the previous decade, whenever farmers' incomes fell, the media and politicians implied that farmers were to blame because they insisted on growing wheat for a world that already had enough. The implicit message was: diversify or perish. The irony is, today, Saskatchewan farmers are growing peas, lentils, sunflowers, and spices and raising llamas, wild boars, and fainting goats and we now face the lowest net income levels in history."
"Farmers diversified, expanded, invested in new technology and value-adding facilities and still we are facing crushingly-low net incomes. The current Saskatchewan income crisis was not caused by farmers or even, for the most part, by weather: it was caused by government action, mis-action, and inaction. Both levels of government must immediately drop those policies which continue to destabilize agriculture and adopt policies which support farm families and rural communities," concluded Wells.
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