James Pascual
Farmers Forum
GUELPH — It was a strange commentary from the get-go.
University of Guelph’s Evan Fraser and Lenore Newman, director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, together penned an article for the National Post recently arguing that you should not blame climate policy for high food prices.
“The federal government’s ‘carbon tax,’ which puts a price on greenhouse gas emissions, is often accused of exacerbating rising food costs,” they wrote. “This is a mistake.”
They went on to say that if farmers embrace new technologies and adopt new management approaches we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They also noted that “Financial incentives that reward farmers who adopt climate smart agricultural practices and technologies would compensate producers.”
So, who pays for the incentives?
You learn in economics 101 that government printing of money always creates inflation, causing prices to rise. No other federal govrnment has printed more than this one. So, yes blame the government.
All of this was not lost on readers, who were overwhelmingly outraged in their comments in reply. Sometimes, reader comments are more insightful and entertaining than the article itself. This is the case here.
Here are five reader replies.
“These guys are nuts. When you increase the price of fuel via a carbon tax increase every year, impose ‘clean fuel’ standards — another tax increase on fuel — what do you think happens to production costs of food?
“In food production what is its highest production input cost? Fuel.
“Delivery of food to stores and its highest input cost? Fuel.
“Drive up the cost of fuel, you drive up the cost of food. These people are straight up lying to common folk. They should be ashamed. Everyone needs to wake up to this lie and realize what is happening to their hard- earned money.”
Wrote Alexander Eanochko: “Are you serious? Carbon Tax increases costs on EVERYTHING: Fuel Taxes, Eco Fees, blah, blah, blah but climate policy ISN’T to blame? Right! And I have a bridge in Arizona to sell you.”
Noted Bob Morrison: “Two employees of the Liberal government telling Canadians don’t worry be happy, pay extra for everything you touch because it is all about the biggest scam ever perpetrated on the world: man-made climate change.”
Said James Carter Church: “What… the authors of this propaganda piece won’t dare to admit, but which German voters recently rejected, is the murderously high cost of following this green ideology. Yes, groceries, and almost everything else, are reaching stratospheric heights in large part because of those policies. And saying it ain’t so is merely gaslighting the public.”
Wrote Sherri Bannon: “So can the authors answer me this? If Canada reduced carbon emissions to ZERO, what is the impact on so-called climate change? It’s zero. As long as Russia, China and India continue to build more coal-fired power plants… any pain we endure is a sucker’s game.
“Second question: What has been the impact of the carbon tax, clean fuel standard (another carbon tax), the excise taxes on gasoline and diesel and the HST (tax on a tax) to date? CO2 emissions keep rising and so-called climate change impacts are unmeasurable.
“Third question: If inflation is not due to Liberal government policies, why is the inflation rate in Japan, Switzerland and France significantly lower than Canada?”
