Thoughts on Elizabeth May and the Saanich-Gulf Islands race

I wrote my column for our local paper this week on the agriculture issues and policy platforms of the major political parties running in our current federal election.  I watched the online debate by the agriculture representatives of each party and attended our local candidates debate, which included Elizabeth May, the party leader for the Greens who hopes to become elected in our riding.  I thought it would be straightforward, but found myself wading in the muddy waters of political posturing and subtle smokescreens.

Surprisingly, it was not the Conservatives, the Liberals or the NDP that deviated from their stated platforms.  At the Pender Island federal candidate debate, Elizabeth May made a comment about  eggs and food safety which didn't ring true.  As the candidate that hopes to change things in Ottawa, resorting to comments that are misleading and perhaps even calculating is unsettling to me.  As candidate for my riding, Saanich-Gulf Islands, Elizabeth May has worked hard to gain friends and supporters since her arrival to our region in 2009.  

Could I have heard her comment wrong "that there are grocery stores in Canada that import eggs from China on a regular basis"?  Perhaps she didn't mean eggs from China, since she quickly followed with garlic from China.  But I heard that on Mayne Island she made the same comment about eggs from China.

 

As an agrologist, farmer and writer of food issues I am concerned about misinformation about our food system. It may not be a perfect system, but there are many dedicated people producing food in Canada and our egg farmers produce a product that is consistently safe.  The supply managed component that is a unique strength of our farming system ensures that most of the eggs that we do consume are produced here.  At various levels of government and within the various farm organizations, there is a lot of effort that goes into ensuring that Canadians have a safe, affordable food system.

The only country that we currently import any fresh eggs from is the US, for trade reasons. The overwhelming majority of eggs that we consume are produced in Canada.   CFIA has a policy to only allow imports based on equivalency in disease status and food safety, so China is prohibited from exporting fresh shell eggs to Canada. The Canadian Food Inspection Services and Border Services have confirmed this.

The only eggs from China that come into Canada are the highly salted and preserved "hundred year eggs" which are imported by the Chinese community in Canada for cultural reasons.  The CFIA regulates this carefully.

I have requested an explanation from the Green Party on this, and the person that got back to me said they would look into it.  They weren't sure about the details.

Recently the Pender Island debate was put on youtube, and I carefully listened to the debate again to verify that I heard it right -  and I did hear it right.

I am disappointed that a leader who has made the assertion that they are different, they will bring back true democracy etc. etc. are really no different from most other politicians. In the course of looking for any video on the debate I saw several videos of Elizabeth May that show an articulate, passionate woman who is dedicated to becoming elected, not only to elevate the environment as a major issue, but she also seems to be intent on  furthering her career and getting on the political map.  

  

One positive thing I did learn from researching the parties for my Farmers Stand column, is that there is a great interest in mainstreaming greener policies in our traditional parties which many think would make the Green Party redundant in many ways, and in an effort to be "different" they might appear more on the fringe. It has been suggested that the Greens join one of the other parties, or perhaps operate as an NGO and anoint Green-Liberal, Green-NDP and maybe even Green-Conservative candidates.

Update: I received an email response from Gerry Ritz, MP and Federal Minister of Agriculture.  I had written to both Ms. May and Minister Ritz about the claim made by Ms. May. Although I have not heard from Ms. May, now MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands,  I did receive a reply from Minister Ritz.  It is as follows:

                                                                                                Quote: 161101

Barbara Johnstone Grimmer, PAg

2310 Grimmer Road

Pender Island, British Columbia  V0N 2M1

firhill@gulfislands.com

Dear Ms. Johnstone Grimmer:

Thank you for your email regarding a claim that Canadian grocery stores import eggs from China. I appreciate being made aware of your views, as well as your confidence in the Canadian system.

You are correct that at this time it would be illegal to import table eggs from the domestic hen (species Gallus domesticus) into Canada from China. A country must meet the requirements of the Canadian Egg Regulations prior to being approved to export table eggs to Canada. Approval is based on the foreign country having grade requirements, conditions of preparation of the food, and an inspection system that are substantially equivalent to those prescribed by the Canadian regulations. China has never been approved, nor has it ever requested a review for approval.

If a country obtains approval, the Canadian importer would still require an import permit from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. As well, all imports of table eggs require inspection by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Official government records do not show any imports of Gallus domesticus table eggs from China; however, data from Statistics Canada reports legal imports from China of 1.4 million dozen preserved or cooked eggs from other bird species, such as ducks.

I trust that this information is of assistance. Again, thank you for writing.

Sincerely,

Gerry Ritz, PC, MP

Canadian Federal Election 2011 - Agriculture Debate with a Gulf Islands perspective

Elizabeth May might have been left out from the boys club, but the Greens were welcomed by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture who hosted the National Agriculture Leader's Debate on April 11 and held it live on their website (it can be seen at http://www.cfa-fca.ca/national-agriculture-leaders-debate-live) Conservative Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz, long time Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter, Pat Martin from the NDP (stepping in for Alex Atamanenko from BC who is the NDP agriculture critic), Andre Bellavance for the Bloc Quebecois, and Kate Storey for the Green Party presented their party platforms for agriculture and debated the issues.

The CFA was pleased to see food and agriculture part of each party platform. The CFA was especially pleased to hear several of the speakers agree on the importance for a National Food Strategy, which would be a long term plan for food and agriculture in Canada and something the CFA has been working on. The long term nature of the strategy is important to farmers and consumers, who have been demanding change in the food system.

The debate was a lot like a pot luck, as were all the debates. Something for everyone, with often the same ingredients in each dish, but a slightly different recipe. Some ideas were a little hard to swallow, or hard to digest. Others had great appeal to farmers. Questions were asked by farmers across Canada, via pre-recorded video. The questions were on topics drawn from the CFA membership, which represents farm organizations across Canada.

Gerry Ritz presented the Conservative “farmer first principles” which is primarily a trade-based, standard business approach to agriculture, which views Canada's strength in agriculture as an exporter of high quality commodity products, along with the stability of domestic supply management. The Conservative government have proposed $50 million in an Agricultural Innovation Initiative and $100 million to food safety. The Conservatives were criticized for their attempts at dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board. The other leaders did not see how supply management could stand at the WTO negotiations if the CWB single desk mandate was removed. Now, the Conservatives have stepped back on that issue and are only talking about having choice in marketing options for barley farmers. The Liberals also support trade initiatives, innovation and food safety but propose a ground-up approach involving farmers needs first, instead of trade obligations first. The Liberals and NDP both had well thought out long range food strategies, which acknowledge the role of food in both health and environmental policies, and recognize the importance of going beyond the five year plans proposed by the Conservatives. The Liberal strategy was adopted from a food and agriculture policy in this riding, and the NDP strategy was from BC's Alex Atamanenko's two year, 28 community trek across Canada interviewing 1000 farmers and citizens. The Green food platform is based on decentralized local, organic food with food exports only in emergency aid or fair trade situations and a goal of 85% food production to be domestic, instead of the current 80% for export. The Green strategy was revealed April 18, emphasizing that there would be no funding for biotechnology and no genetically modified organisms.

Of the farmers who asked questions across Canada, the one from BC would be of particular interest to farmers in the Gulf Islands. Gurinder Cheema is a teacher and farmer in the Fraser Valley. Her family has field crops and also grow greenhouse vegetables for BC Hothouse. Her farm has a creek with a species of fish that is part of a recovery strategy by DFO under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). According to Cheema, the riparian habitat was destroyed by the surrounding housing developments, not by the farms. The irony is that the farmers are doing a good job of protecting the habitat and are being asked to do more at their own cost. It is in society's interest for species and their habitat to be protected, so it was asked if the various parties propose to stand up for farmers and compensate them on any on-farm changes necessary to protect species at risk and their habitat, and do the parties propose to maintain and enhance the Environmental Farm Plans with financial incentives for ecological goods and services. All of the candidates agreed that farmers should not be asked to bear the costs of habitat protection and should be compensated. All were in support of the Environmental Farm Plan program.

It is tough to condense the complexities of farming into simple policy statements. So much of our agriculture is export oriented, such as our grain. This is on the opposite end of the spectrum from supply-managed milk, eggs and poultry, and direct-marketed local food, and complicates things at the federal level.

But what about the local level? So much of our agriculture in the Gulf Islands is local, and what federal policy changes could support local food? Support for Protected Geographical Indicators is one way – for unique local foods. There is work being done in this area across Canada, and there is one PGI for lamb in Quebec already.

But one little municipality in the US no bigger than most Gulf Islands has taken a stand for food sovereignty, at the local level, and has used federal and state statutes to support this initiative. The town of Sedgwick, Maine, population 1,012 said that how they produce food , process food, and distribute food locally is up to them and they have passed a Food Sovereignty ordinance. The ordinance allows buyer and seller to enter their own agreement which overrides state and federal regulations when dealing with transactions involving local foods Our local federal candidates, Gary Lunn (Conservative), Renee Hetherington (Liberal), Edith Loring-Kuhanga (NDP) and Elizabeth May (Green) all gave their support for local food at a  recent all candidates meeting.. Perhaps one of the changes we need at the federal level, is greater autonomy at the local level.

**Here is a link to a CBC podcast with four BC federal candidates (Ed Fast, Alex Atamanenko, Renee Hetherington and Brennan Wauters) discussing agricultural issues that concern farmers in BC  click on link and scroll 1/3 of the way into the podcast