I have been managing agricultural businesses for around twenty years. As for my colleagues, 2023 was a very bad financial year where other factors also exacerbated our stress.
On April 5, my husband and my colleagues demonstrated. For my part, I weighed the distress announced and I questioned its causes and solutions. I have come to the conclusion that we do not have a concerted vision for the future of agriculture in this country.
We obviously have sustainable agriculture plans, but in Quebec, they do not address agronomic issues or economic, social or governance issues, but rather environmental issues, while the other issues are at the heart of the problem. be in agriculture. Furthermore, all these concepts are not mutually exclusive and there is the possibility of creating synergies.
I’m already telling you the story, currently, progress, even environmental, is derisory. The demands of the next generation of farmers have been the same for 50 years. Agricultural policies are not an engine of prosperity.
In Quebec, the Ministry of Agriculture receives less than 1% of the budget. A portion is transferred to municipalities to subsidize property taxes since the burden of civil security was entrusted to them. Another part is paid to agronomists who focus on environmental issues and serve the Ministry of the Environment. The rest can be paid to agriculture, after also subsidizing the work of agronomists, allowing farmers to have access to the budgetary envelope intended for their sector. Is it surprising that we have very few concrete results?
The workforce challenge
Did you know that there is almost no training intended to train agricultural workers in Quebec? The training offered is aimed at future business owners or advisor positions. Agriculture has still met the workforce challenge by welcoming international employees, but deadlines are increasingly erratic, procedures are multiplying and so on…
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Farmers expressed their “discomfort” in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on April 5.
The shortage dates back around fifteen years. What proof remains to be provided of the need to hire foreign workers? And this, without mentioning the certificate of acceptance from Quebec for a worker who will not settle here. Sorry, I forgot the work visa. In addition, these workers are entirely supported by the employer and do not add any burden to the State.
I could continue to illustrate the discomfort until I filled all the pages of this diary. But these examples are enough to demonstrate that the agricultural sector is mobilizing to address issues when it has the power to do so. Unfortunately, current governance mechanisms are detrimental to our prosperity.
Agriculture in Quebec is planned reactively, in silos and without a collective agronomic objective. We are subject to the multiplication of levels of regulation, and not only from public authorities, but also from our respective federations where the same reflection is required.
“Agriculture feeds the world. » This primordial mission is today compromised. To carry it out successfully, we must equip ourselves with an ambitious vision for the future and give ourselves the means to achieve it.
I therefore invite our elected officials to engage in a project to revalorize agriculture by focusing on the questions of the future such as the heaviness of the State, the availability of labor, wages and the responsibility of farmers themselves, food autonomy and reciprocity on imports, productivity through climate change, robotization, artificial intelligence and data ownership, the potential of bioengineering, without forget about educating the population on the reality of these issues so that the information available allows people to make informed choices.
What do you think ? Participate in the dialogue