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Author Topic: Farming issues: how to get media, how to inform non-farmers?
Michelle
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posted 16 October 2008 11:02 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Bookish Agrarian asks this:

quote:
I think you know that I have been publicly opposed to CAIS before it was even enacted, as has the NFU. But trying to get the urban/national media to give a shit about any of this stuff is next to impossible. If anyone has a suggestion of how to get the media to tell the real farm policy story I would be all ears.

As a current city dweller who grew up in suburban and semi-rural settings (and went to rural schools) but who has never been a farmer or really known many farmers, this is an interesting question. I am pretty ignorant about farming and food security and agricultural issues. Not because I want to be, but simply because, as BA says, it doesn't get much press beyond the occasional politics story, and the stereotype of all farmers being Conservative hicks.

So how can this change? I have some suggestions, and I've talked to BA about some of them before.

One suggestion is making alliances with urban activists (and not just radical ones - even centrist ones and Green yuppie-with-composter types would be good too). How can this happen though, when so many of us are simply ignorant? My answer is: through outreach and education.

Since you mention the NFU, BA, I think that they could do a lot to reach out to non-farmers and urban people who are interested in food security issues. They have associate memberships for non-farmers - those should be pushed hard, and efforts made to link up with organizations and activists in more urban areas, as well as rural non-farming neighbours.

And linkages made with alternative online and print media so that your point of view can get to people may have preconcieved notions of what farmers are like politically, etc. The mainstream media DOES occasionally pick stuff up from the blogosphere and alternative media.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
ElizaQ
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posted 16 October 2008 03:05 PM      Profile for ElizaQ     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Just throwing out half baked ideas here based on what Michelle said about food security and education, but I'm wondering if there is a creative way to somehow bring a whole lot of what I perceive as trends together into some sort of publication whether print or virtual. I'm thinking about the "Foodie" trend and all of that entails, local food, love of food, cooking, more awareness of food security that seems to be taking place in a more urban setting and connecting it with farming concerns and it's political aspects from a progressive viewpoint.

I haven't looked but maybe something like that does exist. I dunno.

I guess what I'm envisioning in my mind is when I go to the grocery store and look at the magazine rack and the number of 'food' related publications that are available. The ones with the glossy yummy looking pictures on the front. People do buy them. I do occasionally come across a farm related article in such magazines but as was pointed out by BA and Farmpunk in the other thread who knows what perspective that's actually coming from. For me at least it's hard to tell.

I know creating a viable magazine is a difficult endeavor in this xountry so I'm not necessarily saying that's what should be done, it's just an example that could be drawn from.

I'm trying to think of something that would appeal to more then just an activist community.

I'm totally down with finding ways to get more media coverage but in this day and age, creating your own media is also an option.

[ 16 October 2008: Message edited by: ElizaQ ]


From: Eastern Lakes | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged
bagkitty
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posted 16 October 2008 03:27 PM      Profile for bagkitty     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The devil is in the details. Like getting the "meat is murder" types to restrain themselves when beef producers are trying to talk about sustaining ranching in the face of corporate attempts to "industrialize" beef production in feedlots. Like trying to get the recent converts to "eat locally" to understand that climatic conditions are such that single crop (grain) farming might be the only viable choice for a farm. That public transit is not a reality for farmers or those living in small communities.

The main problem is not in finding messengers from rural areas, it is finding urban activists who will listen, give up on their cherished theoretical models and agree to accept someone else's expertise.


From: Calgary | Registered: Aug 2008  |  IP: Logged
Bookish Agrarian
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posted 16 October 2008 03:39 PM      Profile for Bookish Agrarian   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well the good thing about the NFU is it accepts no money from government or agri-business. The bad thing about the NFU is it accepts no money from government or agri-business which makes it a cash poor organization funded soley by membership fees. It is hard to run a national organization providing resources for farmers and have much left over for reaching out. Which is of course a Catch-22 I realize.

The NFU does put out a magazine called the Union Farmer Quarterly (How's that for a sexy title ) It is primarily a member magazine but associate members get it too. It can be chocked full of interesting things and is really on the cutting edge of food issues. For instantance local food, which comes up often was the focus of the first issue I received when I joined the NFU in 2000.
You can find out more about the NFU at
the NFU website If you are interested in food issues I would recomend having a look at the briefs section. (That isn't hunky and sexy men and women farmers by the way- although maybe that would be a good marketing tool)


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Bookish Agrarian
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posted 16 October 2008 03:44 PM      Profile for Bookish Agrarian   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
By the way, to get an understanding of the kinds of issues the NFU talks about here is our agenda for this years National AGM.
babblers will be interested to know one of the speakers will be none other than Judy Rebick!
NFU Convention Call

From: Home of this year's IPM | Registered: Nov 2004  |  IP: Logged
ElizaQ
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posted 16 October 2008 03:51 PM      Profile for ElizaQ     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Bookish Agrarian:
The NFU does put out a magazine called the Union Farmer Quarterly (How's that for a sexy title ) It is primarily a member magazine but associate members get it too. It can be chocked full of interesting things and is really on the cutting edge of food issues. For instantance local food, which comes up often was the focus of the first issue I received when I joined the NFU in 2000.
You can find out more about the NFU at
the NFU website If you are interested in food issues I would recomend having a look at the briefs section. (That isn't hunky and sexy men and women farmers by the way- although maybe that would be a good marketing tool)[/QB]

Thanks I'll take a look at the site.

Do you think that there is a possibility of working with a group like NFU and doing something that is like a more 'sexed' up version of their quarterly? Not financially, but from an information perspective?

I'm just throwing ideas out there.


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Bookish Agrarian
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posted 16 October 2008 04:08 PM      Profile for Bookish Agrarian   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by ElizaQ:

Thanks I'll take a look at the site.

Do you think that there is a possibility of working with a group like NFU and doing something that is like a more 'sexed' up version of their quarterly? Not financially, but from an information perspective?

I'm just throwing ideas out there.


Well I am in no position to speak for the NFU, but I am sure it would be worth considering. The NFU has teamed up with publications from time to time, but that has usually been on an issue basis.


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Ward
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posted 16 October 2008 04:32 PM      Profile for Ward     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
How about getting the government to buy shares of farming operations?
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Digiteyes
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posted 16 October 2008 05:10 PM      Profile for Digiteyes   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
ElizaQ, are you thinking of something along the lines of The Ethicurean: Chew the Right Thing?

It has a couple of contributors from Canada, but I'm sure would be glad to get more. And it would be great to have word spread about a blog like this.


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al-Qa'bong
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posted 16 October 2008 10:00 PM      Profile for al-Qa'bong   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We had something like what Michelle talked about going on in Saskatoon a few years ago. Urban people were encouraged to take part in activities such as drafting a Food Charter.

Local farmers, as well as farmers from Central America and elsewhere, would tell us their stories, and encourage co-operation between urban and rural types on such issues as food security.

I don't know what happened to this branch of activism, but we used to have meetings and conferences with such speakers as future NDP candidates Don Kossick and Nettie Wiebe.


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George Victor
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posted 17 October 2008 05:50 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Could you do a news-related farm blog BA?

I sure would like to see the national picture presented (issues and concerns). Beginning with a chicken and egg producer reply to free trade, etc.


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Left J.A.B.
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posted 17 October 2008 09:45 AM      Profile for Left J.A.B.     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I am not sure if this will ever be fixed. I had high hopes after all the stuff around melamine that media outlets would make the connection between dog food problems and human food problems since they come from the exact same sources. Once it was over though, back to business as usual. I really think it is going to have to be urban activist and foodies starting to demand more authentic voices from the farm community in their stories and to demand a more comprehensive understanding of farm issues that affect our food system rather than just the latest sensationalist crisis.

It is sad to say, but it may take a food shortage, or some kind of widespread food disaster for the media to wake up to the fact that eaters are interested in this stuff. I was once told by a prominent reporter that Canadians just don’t care about farm issues and that media outlets would be taking up valuable space covering them.


From: 4th and Main | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 17 October 2008 09:59 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
You forgot the tainted meat issue that for some reason isn't quite a scandal despite 17 dead Canadians.

There is a cultural issue here as well and that is that Canadians have been indoctrinated through generations to value cheap over quality and nutritious.


From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Left J.A.B.
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posted 17 October 2008 10:48 AM      Profile for Left J.A.B.     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well the tainted meat issue is just a continuation of the only report a crisis angle. I found it interesting that last night on the Agenda with Steve Paiken on TVO they were discussing food saftey issues and not a single farm organizatin on the panel. This same scenario played out time and time again on the reporting from Listerosis.
The hugely ironic thing is that in 2005 one of Canada's major farm organization was at the House of Commons warning of the very thing that happened, yet I never saw it picked up in the media.
I don't want to steal BA thunder, but here are the recomendations from that appearance with respect to CFIA

quote:
Recommendations
1. Bill C-27 be rejected, and the Government of Canada retain independence with respect
to establishing food safety standards and trade regulations.
2. Increased checks and balances are needed for the CFIA. The CFIA and accredited
agencies should be held liable where appropriate.
3. Regulatory initiatives which bear directly on the public interest should receive
appropriate Parliamentary scrutiny and meaningful public input.
4. The sliding scale for risk assessment should be abandoned; and protection of public
health and safety restored as the sole priority for CFIA. The CFIA should be removed
from its role in trade negotiations. Responsibility for the CFIA should be transferred to
the Minister of Health, so the CFIA will be solely concerned with regulation for health,
safety and the integrity of Canadian food.
5. Appropriate regulations should be implemented to encourage smaller-scale and
community-based processing.
6. No change to licensing requirements for custom cleaners of common seed.
7. Privacy of seed cleaners’ customer lists be ensured.
8. Limitation period for proceedings under the Seeds Act remain at 2 years.
9. CFIA’s disclosure requirements be adjusted to make CFIA more accountable.
10. Canada should retain independent standards, and regulations should be made based
on protecting public health and safety rather than facilitating increased trade.

Full Brief

You would have thought an organization that was pointing to the potential to this sort of thing happening 3 years before, might have been worth an interview or two. But no the media never talks to the real experts and those most dependent on proper food safety protocols - farmers themselves.


From: 4th and Main | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 17 October 2008 11:00 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Who inspects farms? The CFIA?
From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Left J.A.B.
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posted 17 October 2008 11:18 AM      Profile for Left J.A.B.     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Depends on the kind of farm (In Ontario it is)
Chicken producers – Chicken Farmers of Ontario inspectors (very rigorous- not a rubber stamp) Or the Egg Producers of Ontario (very rigorous)

Dairy farms –Dairy Farmers on Ontario inspectors (very rigorous)

Organic Farms – Certified Organic inspectors – plus if they are dairy, chicken or turkey farmers they get inspected twice.

Beef, sheep and pork producers – no real on farm inspection (although if a problem is reported CFIA can enter, so to can the OSPCA, MOE, municipal people and a lot of others) Meat products are inspected in the processing plants either by federal or provincial inspectors depending on the type of processing plant.

Cash crop farms (Wheat, Corn, and so on) are inspected for grade (food or feed quality) at the elevator and then would receive further inspection at a processing plant when actually being converted to food.

CFIA has the over-all responsibility for inspection and many farmers are voluntarily inspected by some of the inspectors out there working as private business people. However, as a practical matter farmers outside of supply management are not ‘forced’ to be inspected at source, but if a problem occurs downstream that is the first place they look so in practical terms all farm sectors have a set of ‘best practices’ guidelines that most farmers enforce on themselves.
Then there isHAACP

Long winded answer, but it is hugely complicated as you can see.


From: 4th and Main | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
remind
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posted 17 October 2008 11:54 AM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Left J.A.B.:
...I really think it is going to have to be urban activist and foodies starting to demand more authentic voices from the farm community in their stories and to demand a more comprehensive understanding of farm issues that affect our food system rather than just the latest sensationalist crisis.
Personally, I think that it has to be a combination of the farmers and those you note, enlightening the rest of Canada. There has been some extremely good opinions and ideas thrown out in this thread, that deserve to be explored and actioned.

BA gave some valuable info and links, that could be shared electronically to people, who are part of the network of the people here.

Let's not let them stand alone and try to make them reach maximum potential. It could be a call to action, seeing as how there is a convention coming up, and monies are apparently needed to further the actions of the farmer's union.

The bio fuel food crisis, melamine infecting our import foods, listeriosis, BSE, etc, could all be tied into a movement to save and make secure our food supply and assist independant farmers and food producers in Canada who appear to be standing alone and isolated.

Perhaps a short brief could be made up by someone from the farmer's union, in conjunction with some other leading voices on the left, who represent, or have voices, in the many sections of the progressive left? Then we could all send out the links with the brief and a call to action to at least take out an associate membership with the farmer's union.

Really food safety and security and production includes almost every aspect of the progressive left. Persons here such as statica, left jab, BA, farmpunk, AlQ, writer, rural fran, Jan and assorted others who would be interested could create a quick statement of support and purpose, and then each give a short support quote which could be emailed out with BA's links to the NFU in fairly quick order. And if Judy was so inclined she could lend her voice as well.

quote:
It is sad to say, but it may take a food shortage, or some kind of widespread food disaster for the media to wake up to the fact that eaters are interested in this stuff.
No, I think it takes a concentrated pro-active effort of the type that have originated from here before. Canadians care, we just do not know how to direct our caring and what to do in a way that will be effective and have maximum impact.

Just last night I was forwarded the email about those little "baby" carrots that come pre-packaged as cocktail carrots. And how they are soaked in bleach to prevent discolouration, because they are not baby carrots at all but broken pieces skinned and made uniform. And it is one of the many I get sent to me that deal with food and organic agriculture each week.


From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 17 October 2008 06:33 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Long winded answer, but it is hugely complicated as you can see.

Yes. The Amish farmers down this way tell me the inspectors are making their lives hell (not their words) and that they are being inspected every couple of days.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
remind
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posted 17 October 2008 06:50 PM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What is your point in saying that, FM? Are you being factual or ironic?
From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 17 October 2008 08:15 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Factual.

I suppose I've been thinking about it. There is this myth of conservatism and deregulation. I say its a myth, and I explained before, that while conservatives "deregulate" consumer protections and recourse to legal remedies, they regulate in favour of market domination by a few large or global corporations.

In Ontario, not that long ago, new regulations were brought in to regulate food sold at bake sales and farmer's markets. To sell food, producers had to meet tough regulations normally applied to commercial operations. Safety was cited as the reason, but how many people have died from goods purchased at the church bake-off?

Before the election was called, two federal bills were on th table to further regulate health food practitioners and herbalists. Again, safety was cited for draconian laws that could criminalize and financially ruin, without a need for a conviction, people who ran small businesses promoting alternative health treatments. The net beneficiary of the regulations would be big pharma.

So to hear that inspectors are leaning on the Amish rather than, say, Maple Leaf Foods, is a little disconcerting.


From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
remind
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posted 17 October 2008 10:58 PM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Okay, I get what you are saying and totally agree with you. Out here it is pretty much the same way nowadays. If you cook something to be sold in public, on any level, it must be done through a commercially certified kitchen, by someone who is Foodsafe certified. However, out here in the hinterlands they have not yet cracked down on community bakesales. But they have on community BBQ's, for social organizations.

But yet we were treated to the guy from Maple Leaf foods, basically berating us across Canada for expecting them to run a listeria free plant, after more Listeria was found there a couple of weeks back. Effectively saying he doesn't give shit how much we complain and I guess that is because he knows the Conservative government is "on his side".

Where is Nathan Fielder when you need him?

[ 17 October 2008: Message edited by: remind ]


From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 18 October 2008 06:46 AM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think where everything gets tangled up is in the details. We tend to be single issue oriented, trying to put out this fire or that. And if we ever do, be sure the government has started two more somewhere else.

I believe if us citiots and the country folk stepped back a bit, and looked at the larger issues, we'd find we have enough in common that we could put our differences on the back burner for a while, and work together.

The way our food system has been arranged is, if you think about it long enough, a danger to national security. And so is the loss of a whole manufacturing sector.

Did I hear correctly just this week that Canada imports 40% of it's food? That's astonishing. It's alarming. Can you imagine a day when Canada is no longer self sufficient in food production? And what will that mean, in terms of foriegn policy? To what nations will we be beholden to in the feeding of our children?

Will we be able to turn back the clock, and return to food self sufficiency, and grow our own again? With what implements? Are there even any Canadian ag. imp. plants left?

Industrial workers and farmers face the same problem. Traitors who forced "free trade" against the national will require farmers and industrial workers to "compete" against others from political juristictions that have no regulation, that have standards we refuse to sink to.

Urban and rural people may suffer from different symptoms, but it's all the same economic infection.

That's what has to be driven home.


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