Blake Ellis/The Independent

“Agriculture is a non-topic,” says Brian Eves.

The president of the Lambton Federation of Agriculture is talking about the federal election campaign.
The Independent talked to Eves and Lambton dairy farmer, Kevin Forbes about the issues farmers face and what the politicians are saying that is catching their attention.

Less than two percent of the Canadian population are farm operators and their families, said Eves, a fourth generation farmer near Beecher in St. Clair Township, who is also active with the Grain Farmers of Ontario. While rural MPs can give a context to the government on farmers’ requirements, at the national level, party leaders are “going to talk to 98 percent of the population, not two,” said Eves.

Forbes, a third generation dairy farmer from Sarnia agrees. “The importance of agriculture is being overlooked,” said Forbes. This is despite knowing that money earned in agriculture is turned over seven times in the economy.

“Agriculture is not going anywhere,” said Forbes, calling it the foundation of the economy.

The auto industry may be in the forefront in this election campaign, said Eves, but agriculture employs three to four more times the people than the auto industry.

Feeling ignored in nothing new for the agriculture industry during election campaigns, as Forbes said farmers often feel like a trading card.

So what are their concerns and needs are during this current federal election campaign?

Forbes said the number one issue for him would trade; that the federal government would give no more concessions given in trade negotiations as it tries to strike a deal with US President Donald Trump.

Supply management is a favourite topic of trade negotiations. In the past, market access to Canada was given to American dairy producers to get a trade deal done. In the last free trade negotiations, which led to an agreement in 2018 between Canada, the United States and Mexico, American milk producers got access to three percent of the Canadian market and there is a currently trade dispute over how this has been handled.

Even with the new market access, American farmers are only using less than 30 percent of the access now has, said Eves.

Virtually all of the American milk is being directed to processing to make butter, cream and cheese.
The Americans do not want to just ship raw milk, but would like to ship fully finished milk products into Canada, said Eves.

As to why Trump takes aim at the Canadian dairy industry, Forbes said it is simply an easy target.
The Liberals, NDP and Conservatives have said during the campaign supply management is off the negotiating table.

Lack of processing is also a concern. Canadian dairy farmers want to see funding going towards processing facilities to provide stability for milk producers, looking to sell their milk. That would provide jobs as well as enhance greener processing for the environment, said Forbes.

Eves as a former beef producer, said the lack of processing capacity is also within the beef industry.
Canada ships a tremendous amount of beef livestock to the United States, it is processed there and shipped back as a finished product.

During this election, the federal Liberals have promised a $200 million Domestic Food Processing Fund. A lot of the lack of processing has to do with government regulations. It is not lucrative for a meat processing facility to be set up in Ontario, unless it is at a large scale operation to make it financially feasible.

When livestock leave Canada to be processed, the Canadian industry loses control which guarantees quality, said Eves, adding he knows American products are not inspected at the same extent as those produced in Canada.

In regards to crops, 40 percent of corn and over half of wheat is shipped outside of Canada to be processed. Raw soybeans are also shipped to China.

There is currently a project in Sarnia-Lambton, which is looking at the production of soybean isolate, which is used in the production of protein drinks and bars. Eves hopes this project will lead to the processing of this concentrated protein form.

“It is ludicrous that we produce it, consume the final product, but don’t process it,” said Eves.
It isn’t just international trade, which is of concern to farmers. They also want to see inter-provincial trade barriers eliminated.

If a product is shipped to another province, there are different labelling and packaging standards for example. This is what is creates an inter-provincial trade barrier, said Eves.

“We talk about trade barriers with the US,” said Eves. “We have a lot here in our own country.”

The Conservatives, Liberals and NDP have all vowed to end Inter-provincial trade barriers.

The Liberals, who held power for the last 10 years, began negotiations with the provinces in March with a plan to have Canada trade-barrier free by Canada Day.