CFA calls for immediate financial aid for farmers to keep the food supply safe

Link

CFA and FCPC urge Ottawa to ensure agrifood can survive and prosper after the pandemic.

Ottawa—The federal government needs to make an emergency payment to all farmers to ensure Canada’s food supply remains safe during the pandemic, says Mary Robinson, President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

The country’s food chain faces extraordinary threats from COVID-19 and farmers need financial help to get this year’s crop planted, she said in an online Zoom news conference cosponsored by Food and Consumer Products of Canada.

While the two national organizations don’t want to create panic in their call to designate the food system the most important priority after health care, “it would be irresponsible not to sound the alarm about the realities Canadian farmers are facing,” she said. They “need immediate, meaningful help from our federal government to continue fulfilling that responsibility.”

Robinson said it was difficult to put a figure on the amount producers require “because it’s hard to forecast what challenges we’ll face during the growing season but the entire agrifood sector needs help.

“Agriculture, the foundation of our overall food supply is, at this very moment in time, at a tipping point. If we do not, as a nation, address the rising challenges immediately, Canadian consumers could see a decrease in the amount and variety of food at their local grocery stores as well as higher prices, in the months ahead.”

FCPC President Michael Graydon said helping the agrifood sector now will make it “an engine for economic recovery for after the pandemic has passed.”

Food processors buy 40 per cent of Canada’s agricultural output, he said. “The extraordinary costs and consequences of the COVID pandemic are straining Canadian farms’ ability to grow and harvest the ingredients we need.

“FCPC applauds the leadership of federal and provincial authorities who are working to support the food industry, including the announcement of new measures that will help connect Canadians with employment opportunities in essential businesses like food processing. The entire food supply chain will feed Canada through the coming difficult months and keep the nation’s largest manufacturing workforce an engine for post-COVID recovery. Anything less than full support for farmers now will harm our rural communities, our cities, and all Canadians well into the future.”

Robinson said that without financial help, food production could be curtailed raising the prospects of higher prices and food shortages. Canadians should “contact your local MP and tell them how much you value our food supply system. Tell your elected representatives that Canadian farmers need support and backing now. We need to know government, as it has done for other industries, is there for our farmers, so that we can continue to do what we do best – grow food to feed all Canadians.”

Grain Farmers of Ontario also called for financial help for farmers. Its members are “are heading into the 2020 plant season and are deciding how much, and which, grains to plant. Given the uncertainty in global markets, the drop in demand for the current grain supply – through ethanol plant closures, livestock production declines, and more, and the lingering impacts of the last two harvests, grain farmers cannot bear the burden of risk again this year.

GFO Chairman Markus Haerle said, “We need the government to share in the risk that farmers are going to take this year to produce food. Our farmers are ready, and want, to plant the food that Canada needs. At current prices, in many cases our farmer-members will not even break even once they sell their grain.

“Our farmer-members must supply the food system with grain that will be used for food, feed for animals, and more, but with no assurance from the government that these investments will not ruin them.”

Ontario grain and oilseeds “an essential part of Canada’s domestic food supply and economy – accounting for more than 75,000 jobs and $18 billion for the country’s economy. Grain farmers in Ontario grow about 15 million tonnes of grain for Canada and the world each year.”