Many things must change in agriculture in Quebec and we believe that Minister André Lamontagne is perfectly aware of this. Hence its decision to launch a vast national consultation on the territory and agricultural activities. The question we ask ourselves is the pace at which these changes must or can occur.
By choosing to begin with a discussion on what is most fundamental, the basis of everything, the agricultural territory, its condition, what we do with the land, who owns it and the price it costs, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food made a logical choice. But this choice is a long-term one. Do we really have this time?
The answer is no. In 2008, the Pronovost commission proposed a road plan for these changes, with a time horizon of fifteen years to achieve them. We have just passed this milestone and very little has been done. But time is running out.
The global warming targets not to be exceeded by the year 2100 are on track to be reached before children born this year become teenagers. How many more seasons of catastrophic harvests like the one we just experienced can we endure before our agricultural system collapses?
The globalized supply chains on which we base our agroeconomic strategies and food security are seriously faltering.
The geopolitical upheavals on the planet are such that no one can predict what the state of the world will be like next year.
The sad reality is that the fifteen years lost since the publication of the Pronovost report will be very difficult to make up for. The recommended changes could have been made gradually, while respecting farmers, their investments, their work and their legitimate fears. The current revolt of European farmers illustrates the extent to which the urgency to act comes up against the normal, human resistance of a disrupted, weakened, distressed way of life.
Does this mean that there is nothing to do? Certainly not. To face the challenges mentioned above other than in a reactionary posture after the fact, we must of course accelerate the pace of adaptations already underway and carry out several major projects simultaneously. But more will be needed!
We will first need a clear vision of where we want to go, which takes into account the urgency of the situation. To do this, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The COP28 declaration on agriculture already essentially indicates the way forward: primacy of the family farm, diversification of agricultural models, financial support for the farm as an entity rather than certain targeted productions, accelerated agroecological shift and emphasis on self-sufficiency.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) will need to regain leadership and be provided with the funds required to adequately guide and support farmers in this overhaul of our agriculture.
It will also be necessary to demonstrate unwavering political courage without which the implementation of the above cannot be achieved.
But above all, it will take a colossal communication effort to bring together these two solitudes: public opinion, increasingly green and demanding for “cheap” quality food, on the one hand, and agricultural producers mired in debt. and productivity at all costs, on the other hand. This is possible, it has even already been done, notably when Minister Jean Garon, with the assistance of Prime Minister René Lévesque, succeeded in “selling” the Agricultural Land Protection Act to the Quebec population already ago 45 years old.
The world being much more complex and polarized than at that time, a leader, no matter how gifted, can never do it alone. The crisis helping, because crisis there will be, is it dreaming in color to wish for a national mobilization leading to a great compromise between environmental emergency and respect for agricultural reality, in the name of a priority which takes precedence over many others, or our food security and that of future generations.