All eyes are on Niagara this week

This week, farmers of all stripes and sectors will be watching for the outcome of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Agriculture Ministers meetings in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. The last time the Ministers were in Ontario in November 2008, they announced there would be a review of federal business risk management (BRM) programs.

Farmers across the country are sending letters to the editor to various publications calling on the ministers to adopt a working Business Risk Management policy that will allow farm families some stability in an age of declining reference margins and volatile market conditions.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, and other organizations have recently released commentaries calling for the federal government to address safety net issues for farm families across the country.

They echo what thousands of farm families have already been saying: current programs are not working. The federal government has an opportunity to fix the situation by tweaking their recently announced Agricultural Flexibility program, but the tweaks must allow for AgriFlex to be used for business risk management programs, and there must a meaningful investment. Read the full Ontario Corn Producer editorial for more information.