The family farm is a cherished concept in Ontario agriculture.
But increasingly, events are pointing towards a need for public policy development that serves the needs of all sizes of family farms. The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario has been advocating what is known as “differentiated policy streams” for the past year or more.
In essence, the CFFO has been saying that large, medium, and small farms are all different and require the province to apply different rules, policy approaches, and support to each size category of farm. We simply have to start building a place for all sized farms in serving the overall public good.
Most of Ontario’s farms continue to be family owned and operated, so the issue isn’t really about ownership. The issue is really about how we support families who farm different sized operations. A couple of examples will suffice to show how the tension is starting to materialize across the countryside.
For one, the recent controversy over pork marketing shows there is a need for a policy response that takes into account all sizes of farms. Large hog farms, most of which would still be classified as family farms, can do more things for themselves and require less support in producing and marketing hogs.
But the large collection of smaller farms simply must have continued access to markets through a provincial marketing board. And one could probably make an argument that additional support should be directed towards smaller producers in serving the overall public good.
Another example of the emerging tension revolves around caps on public support programs. The CFFO firmly maintains that appropriate limits need to be set on support programs in order to support family farms. But we are now seeing multiple generation farms setting up shop under one roof and creating challenges in how to interpret where and how a family farm level should be set. And if we were to seek to modify the support given to those multi-generation family operations it would also have to be counterbalanced against the natural advantages that larger farms sometimes have in the marketplace. Here, too, a policy stream that made different rules and appropriate support for different sized farms and arrangements would be helpful.
At the CFFO, we believe that public policies that recognize the contributions made by farms of all sizes, and regulates accordingly, as well as providing appropriate support programs to all kinds of farms, will contribute to a viable agricultural sector and a socially and environmentally healthy countryside.
And we’re not alone in saying that. A report from the Institute of Agri-Food Policy Innovation stated that “to accelerate growth and competitiveness in Ontario agriculture we must develop policy streams tailored to the different objectives, needs, and capabilities of the members of the industry.”
Nobody will say that pushing forward on this pathway will be easy. But if we want to serve the needs of all farmers, and in the process serve the overall public good, we need to start moving towards a public policy approach that recognizes and plans for the needs of all sizes of farms. There needs to be a place for all.
John Clement is the General Manager of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario.
