Quebec farmers have started to express their anger in recent weeks. Demonstrations in different regions continue. And I’ll bet you that it’s not over.
Farmers’ impatience is becoming quite widespread. Large-scale demonstrations have been shaking Europe for several weeks. Tractor convoys stormed Berlin, Paris, Brussels and several other major cities.
Here as there, the themes are very similar. Fall in agricultural income and increase in production costs. The net income of the farming family is in free fall. Taxes and government regulations are to blame.
Be understood
The slogan “No farmers, no food” has appeared on a few posters here recently. We have seen it pass, in more than one language, in Europe for some time. We must reconnect in the public mind agricultural work and the contribution of food to society.
This slogan is fundamental for the battle of the agricultural world. In the world of the 2000s where influence resides in the city, the farmer is seen as a subsidized polluter. If the farm is big, it is not seen as a great contribution to feeding many people. We will rather talk about industrial agriculture, almost with the implication that we are poisoning people in addition to polluting.
In modern urban perception, food doesn’t come from the farm, it comes from the supermarket shelves. The majority of people have no idea about the production methods and the effort that goes into them.
Awareness
We can sense an awakening of all parties currently in the National Assembly. The government has underestimated the discontent that has been growing for several years. The opposition is now demanding help for farmers.
Everyone seems to forget that in recent years, all these parties agreed to tighten the screws on farmers. Pesticides, herbicides, protection of riparian areas, management of manure, dust, odors, elected officials are often motivated by valid intentions, but are not aware of the consequences of their decisions on the ground. Sometimes we ban a practice here, then we let in imports that have used it.
On the pesticide issue, Québec solidaire and the Liberal Party asked the government for an even more restrictive approach, without measuring the impact in terms of reduced production and increased costs.
In its program, the Parti Québécois wants to create a new government body: an agency responsible for animal welfare. It seems angelic, unassailable. In fact, we can imagine the complications that this new bureaucracy would impose on breeders in the areas of milk, eggs and meat.
When it comes to the environment and animal welfare, farmers are not opposed to change. Moreover, their methods have radically transformed over the past 20 years.
But they no longer want to pay alone for collective choices. They can no longer stand blind decisions that destroy their income.
So much the better if all parties finally understand this.