Bert Von Westerholt, Cash cropper, Harriston, Ont.

My top 3 gripes

Canadians, farmers included, seem discontent these days on a number of fronts. Farmers Forum asked 20 farmers what top three things are ticking them off. Here are some replies.

1. “The lack of any sort of vision for food and who produces the food in this country as reflected by almost every policy coming out of Justin Trudeau’s mouth — the latest being the capital gains (tax increase), which basically threatens every small scale farm in the country for succession.”
2. “Whenever there is any kind of land use policy, it’s always wonderful for farms, until something else is needed and then (agriculture) is very expendable and quite easily thrown to the side. Where are we heading as a country?”
3. “We jump through every hoop the government throws in our face, and yet the doors open and stuff comes in from other countries. Anything we do here, we must pay carbon tax because we’re evil people drying our corn, but all the corn that comes across the border, that’s fine, it becomes part of the Canadian supply. So, government, government and government.”
Emery Huszka
Cash cropper
Lambton County

1. “The current discussion around sustainable/regenerative agriculture: “I think there needs to be a heads up (to government), that if we’re going to be changing, there should be incentives for guys to change.”
2. “The disconnect between the opinion in urban centres and agriculture. If you’ve grown up in Toronto and you’ve never ventured outside the city, how are you able to make an opinion about how we do things on a scale to actually feed the world.”
3. “The carbon tax, especially for us with the grain dryers. Meanwhile there are no other alternatives … unless you could come up with a hydrogen-powered grain dryer.”
Jarrett Heinhuis
Cash cropper
Chatham-Kent

1.“Carbon tax. Because we have to pay so much carbon tax on propane, and that’s getting to be more and more an expense now. We almost spent around $30,000 on carbon tax last year.”
2. “The environmental rules that are coming out, more and more. It looks like they want to have more rights over your personal farm, more regulation. There’s too much regulation.”
3. “Tenants in old farmhouses that you can’t get out. I think that’s a huge problem. That’s why a lot of farmers are taking (surplus) farmhouses down because they don’t want to be bothered with that. I have a tenant I’ve been trying to get out of my house for two years. My son is getting married, and he’s supposed to move in there.”
Bert Von Westerholt
Cash cropper
Harriston, Ont.

1. “I would say the overall cost of things. The lower commodity prices don’t bother me, but our (input) costs need to follow suit, and they’re not.”
2. “High interest rates are not helping anything, and that’s linked to the overall cost of things.”
3. “And the carbon tax sucks. I think it’s kind of pointless and senseless. All it does is drive things higher. Other than that, I’m really happy!”
DJ Wassenaar
Cash cropper
Jarvis, Ont.

1. “I can tell you that in a heartbeat: When farmers outbid other colleagues to gain more land and are willing to pay up to $500 per acre rent, which I cannot afford. You feel like somebody has kicked you in the rear or punched you in the stomach. It’s just insane. It’s not fair. I don’t know how these guys get the money to afford it, just to grow corn, soybeans and wheat. They should be sent back to the school of economics.”
2. “The other thing that ticks me off is when they always go after the prime minister and tell him how bad he is. With this carbon tax … somebody has to pay for the war in Ukraine and that’s easy money to get. Premier Doug Ford attacks them (the federal government on the carbon tax) but he wants to expropriate 770 acres of land from farmers (in Wilmont Township) …. That’s why I don’t like the Conservatives, they pretend to be great but they’re full of it.”
3. “Those farmers who complain about low commodity prices and the carbon tax, but are willing to pay $500 per acre to rent land. That’s the hypocrisy in it, and I don’t get it.”
Joerg Kuhstoss
Cash cropper
Rodney, Ont.

1.“The government does not recognize agriculture as the economic driver that it is, and farmers are only 1.3 % of the vote, so we have no say with the government.”
2. “Canadian Food Inspection Agency rules that are not scientifically bound. Our processors (and farmers) spend a lot of money disposing of spinal material in hazardous waste sites to comply with the rules. But that same animal can be slaughtered in the U.S. and the spinal material imported into Canada for human consumption. I can’t bring an empty pallet back to the feed store, because of the CFIA rules, but a pallet-repair shop is allowed to return it.”
3. “Our agricultural safety net when compared to other countries (or even Quebec). The U.S. spends tons of money on their farmers.”
John Lunn
Beef farmer
Norwood, Ont.

1. “The state of the federal government is an awful big issue. It’s just a really bad situation and that covers taxation rates and everything. The carbon tax is just a small fraction of the total tax bill. The tax bill is huge in Canada And then you’ve got the HST on everything including the carbon tax. It’s tax, tax, tax.”
2. “People in the government who are doing very little, from municipal to federal. Doing nothing, practically, but still making $100,000 plus their benefit package and, of course, bonuses.”
3. “Capital costs and input costs haven’t gone down. Bigger tractors are $700,000 or $800,000. Urea fertilizer is $750 a tonne, but that’s not delivered to the farm or spread on the fields. That’s still very, very expensive fertilizer, when you compare it to what we get for the crops.”
John Molloy
Cash cropper
Port Perry. Ont.

1. “The federal government doesn’t listen.”
2. “Fewer people are willing to work. Who’s going to work? We’re looking pretty soft. Who’s going to carry the torch. It doesn’t matter in what sector I talk to – the traders or retail – it is extremely difficult to find someone to put in 40 hours. When you see how few people are willing to take over businesses, it looks like a few people will run everything. We get zero applicants or someone with issues and nobody wants to buy the ag businesses.”
3. “Woke culture. We have to kneel to everyone who has feelings. It is difficult in the work place when one person has certain feelings that become demands and everyone else has to abide by it. Other countries look at us and say “what are they doing? They are shooting themselves in the foot.”
Charlie Forman
Cash crop and greenhouse
Seeley’s Bay