Handicapped by Design: The Ask
Beginning Farmers Ask Premier Wynne to Fix Their Handicap
GUELPH. A group of beginning farmers have written Premier Wynne in her capacity as Minister of Agriculture and Food to draw her attention to a significant unfairness caused by the design of an Ontario government farm program.
A group of young farmers, they are at much greater risk from the latest cost-price squeeze than their neighbours. They are unable to join the rest of the pork industry in the cautious optimism about the profit outlook for 2013 that the Premier described in her recent article in Better Pork.
These farmers were overlooked by an important emergency assistance program during the worst crash in pork markets, the period in 2007-2008 when hog prices collapsed 43 percent. The design of the assistance left out beginning farmers.
Ever since, these farmers have been handicapped by paltry net worth and had to be among the best just to hang onto their farms. They have no resources left to survive the constant gyration of prices and input costs that are the typical pattern for farm markets - without assistance comparable to what they missed in 2008 and since.
The producers are asking the Premier to give them the respect they did not receive in 2008, and provide assistance for three reasons:
- They were overlooked in 2008 through no fault of their own.
- They received minimal access to the sector renewal programs that followed.
- Record high feed costs since the fall of 2012.
With help, these beginning farmers say they will survive and soon thrive.
For more information contact:
Elbert van Donkersgoed,
519-763-5080 or Handicapped by Design.
