Farm organizations work on common issues
REGINA — Farmer organizations from several countries agree there is common ground among them, even as geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties swirl.
Representatives from the Global Forum on Farm Policy and Innovation (GFFPI) said they can work together and keep trusted relationships open in this environment. Last year, the members produced a report on how to collaborate, and a recent webinar discussed the issue.
Katie McRobert, executive director of the Australian Farm Institute, said political leaders might take certain positions, but people working in agriculture and trade “know that’s not the real state of the world” and continue to maintain supply lines.
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Trade is absolutely vital, not just to underpinning our economies in our various countries, but also to actually contribute to world food security,” she said.
“Without trade, food security takes a nosedive very quickly.”
McRobert said it’s unrealistic to expect countries to be food sovereign and efficient. Food security policies are important, but trade can also enable that goal.
For example, she said Australia’s neighbour, Indonesia, has an unrealistic goal of food sovereignty; trade with Australia supports regional food security.
The director general of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture in the European Union, Emmanuelle Mikosz, said sharing best practices and innovation is more important now than in the past.
Why it Matters: Global trade has been disrupted by various government policies, including those from U.S. President Donald Trump, and farmers are trying to find their way through a so-called new world order.
Shari Rogge-Fidler, chief executive officer of Farm Foundation in the United States, echoed Mikosz’s comments about the value of interconnection.
Global and natural systems move across borders without artificial boundaries, she said.
“There is so much common ground between farmers around the globe, and it’s really our governments that are less aligned,” she said.
“But at the farmer level we are so aligned around the world for the things that are important to us.”
The managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute said there are clearly different domestic policies in countries, but the issues are all similar.
“There are challenges with innovation. There are challenges with trade. There are challenges with sustainability,” said Tyler McCann.
“And so we get the kind of different solutions that are put in place. It creates an interesting opportunity to learn from what works and what doesn’t.”
Through the GFFPI, farmers can assess the potential of various solutions. McCann likes the way Australia funds innovation, for example.
McRobert said that’s a true public-private partnership, in which farmers pay levies to research and development funds and the Australian government matches them.
Australian farmers have to be efficient because they operate in a deregulated market with no subsidies, she said.
“I understand why subsidies work. We used to have them as well, so I’m not being entirely critical of the system, but it can often be trade distorting and it can also have environmental damage,” McRobert said.
Mikosz said it is complicated to pull together 27 countries in the Common Agriculture Policy, and it’s reformed every seven years. That process is underway now and is shifting toward more environmental expectations, she added.
“The point of this new commission now is to find common grounds between economic profitability and environmental indicators,” she said, adding that improving the environment improves economics.
This is an example of how different jurisdictions have different ways of dealing with challenges, she added.
“A very big discussion within the European Union is how to finance the (policy) transition and how to maintain farmers being able to live to have this transition,” Mikosz said.
In the U.S., Rogge-Fidler said there is a grand trade policy experiment going on right now. About 80 per cent of American farmers voted for the Trump administration.
“While that support is whittling away, I think there are many farmers in America who still believe that long term, it will play to the farmers’ benefit but with short-term pain,” she said.
Farm Foundation has developed a policy innovation sandbox to bring in former agriculture secretaries and innovative thinkers from across the value chain. They are looking 10 years ahead and exploring new policy approaches.
The first meeting identified eight areas for policy innovation, such as risk management and extension.
McCann said Canada hasn’t seen the same level of innovation and dynamism as in other parts of the world. He suggested the agricultural policy framework could be improved.
“I think Canadians have been very sensitive to the difference on innovation,” he said.
“Under the last government, there was more of a push to what we would perceive as a European perspective. I think that there’s a desire in the industry to see more of an American-type approach when it comes to access to innovation.”
Source: producer.com