[getsmart-l] An update on the NFU's courage to address the public trust in food policy and the Ontario Ombudsman

[John O'Gorman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Grant Robertson Ontario Coordinator National Farmers Union 
To: National Farmers Union- Ontario Commentary 
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:34 PM
Subject: National Farmers Union Ontario Commentary - An update on the NFU's courage to address the public trust in food policy and the Ontario Ombudsman


An update on the NFU's courage to address the public trust in food policy

 and the Ontario Ombudsman


A commentary on behalf of the National Farmers Union Ontario

By Grant Robertson

 

It was a bit over a year ago when the NFU filed its official complaint with the Ombudsman of Ontario in regards to the failure to protect and consider the public trust in terms of agricultural policy.  It was some 8 months ago that the NFU presented its finalized brief supporting the initial complaint to the Ombudsman.  The NFU's complaint has not been met without some controversy from a few quarters, but little has ever been gained by playing it safe.  The last several decades of the decline of farm incomes and rural communities testifies most strongly to this.  

 

The NFU has had multiple conversations with the Ombudsman's staff and they have been very professional and keenly aware of the issues at stake.  While the outcome of the decision to proceed with a full-blown examination by the Ombudsman on these issues is still to come the NFU remains hopeful that the Ombudsman will show the kind of courage and vision he has shown on other issues and will address what has happened, and is happening, in terms of the impact of government policy, not just on farmers, but all citizens of Ontario.  

 

Since the initial statement to the Ombudsman is over a year ago now, it is interesting to see what an update of the information reveals.  There has been a great deal of discussion lately in the media in terms of a 'global food crisis'.  Analysis of this crisis has shown that it is really a crisis of failed production, environmental changes due to global warming, and, most importantly, the switch from local farmers feeding local people to a reliance on feeding global export markets.  Ontario is not immune to this situation, but our general affluence and our social safety net has, to some extent, insulated us from the dramatic changes happening in other parts of the world - for the time being.  In many ways the NFU's brief to the Ombudsmen was prescient in terms of the impact of the decline of global food stocks and the repercussions it could have right here in Ontario.  A year ago the NFU was also talking about the impact of high energy prices and we are seeing those impacts right now as well.

 

The NFU entered this unprecedented challenge of the Ministry with no little trepidation.  We can not know what the outcome will be, nor could we predict if we would like all of those outcomes.  However, the issues are so clear and the problems have such long term implications for this province that we felt in the end we had no choice but to try to do something.  The Ombudsman's office has an unprecedented opportunity in front of it to begin an examination of food production in Ontario.  To begin a process that ensures the best interests of citizens is central to food and agricultural policy in Ontario.  To begin a process that helps protect Ontario's economic, environmental and social health by examining what has happened to the multi-generational family farm and the pressures government actions and inactions have placed upon it.  

 

As I am sure the Ombudsman's office has found out, food and food production are enormously complicated issues.  They touch on so many sectors of our society.  We are finding out more and more that they have a dramatic impact on our health and through that our health care budgets.  Food is so central and so basic we have forgotten that it does not just happen.  It takes work and it takes government action that recognizes the long term impact of our decisions and non-decisions.   The NFU is very hopeful, as are members of the public who have been following this journey with us, that the Ombudsman's office will take up this challenge and launch a full scale investigation and study into what has happened and whether or not we are ready to meet the possible challenges of the future.  That is the very essence of the public's trust and the very essence of our request for action.

 

 

Grant Robertson is a senior elected official with the National Farmers Union-Ontario and a National Board Member of the NFU. Grant and his family farm near Paisley, Ontario.  The author can be contacted at grant at bmts.com

If you have been forwarded this commentary and would like to be added to the distribution list please send an email to grant at bmts.com with "subscribe" in the subject line. 

 

 
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