Jeff Burgar
Just for fun, consider the argument agriculture producers should be the richest people in Canada.
Our case goes back thousands of years. Back when tribes roamed the lands, following herds of wild animals. Or waited at watering holes, to capture animals not wary enough to be more careful. Or picked wild berries from bushes, harvested wild grains, fruits, and whatever passed for vegetables in ancient times. Or harvested fish from water. Basically, days were consumed by hunting and foraging.
Eventually, settlements formed at places where food was plentiful and readily available. Agriculture and raising animals for feed, labour and nutrition was created and expanded.
With this transition from a nomad lifestyle to permanent settlements, there came new needs. Such as serious defence of homes and crops. Once mankind learned to satisfy daily, weekly and yearly needs of filling one’s stomachs, opportunities to essentially ‘expand one’s horizons’ became a fact of life.
One would think the masters of the village, or the country side, would automatically be the best farmers. The best producers. The one or two or three people, or a group which made all these things possible, simply by allowing other people time away from the crops and animals, and giving them time to do other – hopefully – more constructive things.
Alas, there were always a few people who could drum up support for their own personal ideas. Where the tribe should hunt. Where people should settle. How the village wheels should turn. So as long as people had their tummies mostly filled and they were allowed to spend a few minutes a day doing whatever suited their fancy, life went on and such leaders were allowed to lead. Armies are not the only thing that travels on its stomachs. Everything does.
We generally recognize people at the top as leaders. But label the entire group of followers, enablers, and leader wannabes as politicians. As such, politics is really the world’s second oldest profession.
We’ve all come a long ways. So, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, doesn’t farm. He builds cars, runs a chat company, and puts satellites in space. Is that a bad thing?
Ask, what future is there in agriculture or ranching in countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Venezuela or even Russia? How about in Canada, where a federal government is quietly bent on punishing producers through taxes, increasing the costs of production and punishing their ability to do business.
Why do family farms continue to disappear and corporate farms grow ever larger? Why are Canadian cattle herds shrinking. Why does Canada import massive amounts of food?
All of us don’t live in jam-packed, growing cities that need schools, roads, housing, water and sewers, professionals and much, much more.
But every year, the people who really make this possible, producers, have less and less say. Rich in spirit we are in rural lands everywhere. But we have to fight for every bit of influence. It is indeed a Dangerfield world.