Policy Areas

NFU calls for full and permanent status for all migrants!

The National Farmers Union (NFU) stands in solidarity with migrants living, working, and studying in Canada on this International Migrants Day.  Over the past year, the NFU has reiterated and Read more

NFU’s Darrin Qualman named to Sustainable Agriculture Strategy Advisory Committee

Saskatoon, SK— Monday, December 12th the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced the launch of consultations to develop a Sustainable Agriculture Strategy (SAS) in collaboration with a Read more

Statement on ISDS and climate

Civil society organisations are calling on governments to remove the threat that ISDS (investor state dispute settlement) poses to the climate. The following statement outlines our primary concerns and demands. Read more

Get big or get out the track hoe

How agricultural policy drives farmland drainage by Cathy Holtslander, Director of Research and Policy The National Farmers Union is a direct-membership organization made up of Canadian farm families who share Read more

CGC’s Improved Grain Grading Dispute Resolution Process Helps Farmers, Says NFU

Hanley, SK – The National Farmers Union (NFU) is pleased with the changes to the Canadian Grain Commission’s grain grading dispute resolution service formerly called “Subject to Inspector’s Grade and Dockage” Read more

Towards a National Agricultural Labour Strategy that works for Farmers and Farm Workers

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is uniquely positioned to provide a perspective towards a National Agricultural Labour Strategy that recognizes the common interests of farmers and farm workers and to propose solutions that will increase the economic, social and ecological sustainability of our food and farming system by focusing on improving the conditions and returns to labour. For decades, Canada’s farm numbers have been going down, farm size has been increasing, and more farms have come to rely on hired workers as a consequence. The ongoing loss of farms and the current shortage of farm labour have the same root cause: a cost-price squeeze that results in inadequate returns to the work of farming, whether done by the farm operators or farm workers. Paying high prices for inputs and receiving low prices for commodities results in farmers subsidizing their farms with off-farm jobs, pressure to keep wages to farm workers low, the exit of skilled people from the sector to pursue more remunerative and less precarious sources of income, and a lack of new entrants to replace retiring farmers. Read more

Letter – CFIA President must be replaced in light of CropLife Canada apparent involvement in writing regulations

The revelation that a document summarizing the CFIA’s regulatory proposal was produced on a computer owned by Jennifer Hubert, Director General, Plant Biotechnology, CropLife Canada, is a wake-up call regarding CFIA’s improper collaboration with CropLife and its sister lobby groups, Seeds Canada and the Canada Grains Council. The CFIA shows a long-standing pattern of deference to the regulated parties which has caused us to lose confidence in the CFIA’s ability to protect the public interest. We therefore ask that the President of the CFIA be replaced with a new leader who will uphold an unwavering commitment to protecting the interests of Canadians, our food and our environment in order to restore the CFIA’s reputation and credibility. Read more

NFU submission for Public Engagement on Permanent Public Transit Funding in Canada

In this consultation, the key point we would like to emphasize is that publicly funded rural inter-community public transit is needed to serve Canada’s rural and remote areas. Rural public transportation options have been eliminated over recent years, just when alternatives to private vehicles as a strategy to combat climate change and prevent rural depopulation is needed most. In most of Canada, rural and remote areas are underserved, with intermittent, expensive and sometimes unsafe transportation options; in many cases no public transportation is available. A safe, reliable, accessible, affordable and climate-friendly national public transportation system can be designed to serve both rural and remote communities and larger centers.  Such a system would provide greater autonomy, dignity and freedom to people including vulnerable women, youth, elderly, people with disabilities and health conditions and people living in poverty whose safety may depend on reliable transportation. Moreover, Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls final report calls for “safe and affordable transit and transportation services… sufficient and readily available.” Read more

Why farmers are not celebrating CETA’s five-year anniversary

September 21 marked the five-year anniversary of the provisional application of the Canada–EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). It is no surprise to the National Farmers Union (NFU) that farmers are not happy with the results. Negotiations on the agricultural chapter were strained to the point that it was one of the last areas to be agreed upon. In the media, the issues were presented as a trade-off between allowing the EU more access to our supply-managed dairy market in return for gaining more access to the EU’s market for Canadian beef. Some political commentators looked for cheap points by framing this purported stalemate as a conflict between western ranchers and dairy producers in Ontario and Quebec. The NFU had a more sophisticated analysis, which time has proven to be accurate. Read more

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: The NFU Reflects on Pathways toward Right Relations with Indigenous Peoples

Saskatoon, SK, September 30th 2022 – This National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the NFU pauses to reflect on some of what we have been learning over the past year Read more