We invite you to choose 1 of the following paragraphs to cut and paste for your letter to the BC government. Please do not choose more than 1. We encourage everyone to add or modify your own letter, so that if 2 people choose the same paragraph it will not end up as 2 identical letters. This will make a bigger impact.
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Honourable Ben Stewart
Minister of Agriculture
PO Box 9043 STN PROV GOVT
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
Telephone: 250-387-2253
Fax: 250-387-4312
Email: ben.stewart.mla@leg.bc.ca
Dear Minister:
I am concerned about the Animal Health Policy review that is taking place. This is a major policy review and is extremely important for farmers and non-farm animal owners alike. The proposals are very broad and seem to capture and regulate more than is necessary to prevent and contain animal health issues. It is important that small farmers and non-farm animal owners are not inadvertently harmed by policies designed to protect factory farm exports. I expect to see wide consultation on this issue given its wide implications. An online survey is not sufficient. Please outline what the next steps in the consultation plan are, particularly for small farmers and non-farmers.
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I have recently learned of your review of the Animal Health regulations in B.C. They appear to be primarily designed to serve the interests of large factory farms and don’t take into consideration the interests of small farmers. How many farmers with gross incomes less than $100,000 have you heard from? If you don’t know, please let me know what steps you have taken to consult farmers in this category. I do not consider an online survey to be consultation. Have you had any information sessions with questions and answers? If not, please let me know when these will happen. A subject as complex as animal health needs meaningful consultation.
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As a small farmer, I have suffered as a result of the meat inspection regulations. I understand that there is now a review of animal health regulations. Given how poorly the meat inspection regulations were rolled out, I hope the government realizes that it needs to do a better for small farmers this time. Another set of regulations designed with only large farms in mind will set small farmers back even further. Please let me know when there will be a meeting in my area to discuss the possible implications of these new policies.
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I understand the need to have safe food. This is why I am a small farmer and treat my animals with care and respect. Unfortunately, this type of farming is becoming increasingly expensive as government makes policy with only the interests of the largest farms in mind. I should not have to pay a license fee to have a few animals, nor should I have to tag my animals if I sell them directly to my customers. That is the ultimate traceability. If we want safe food, we should be ensuring that the types of farms that produce safe food (small farms), remain economically viable. Industrial farms have industrial problems with industrial wastes. Don’t lump small farms in with factory farms. At the very least, there should be separate rules for the largest farms that have the least direct path to consumers.
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I was disappointed to see that new policies aimed at animal owners in B.C. fail to recognize that the major animal health problems are caused by the major factory farms and factory farming methods. Small farms, and more natural farms, do not have the same health issues as the factory farms, nor are they as far removed from the customers who eat their meat. It is not fair to impose extra regulations on small farmers that will cost us money when small farmers are not causing the problem. I hope that you will consult farmers widely on this to ensure that the family farm is not compromised by these new regulations. Please let me know what the next steps in the consultation process are. Online surveys are not enough.
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At a time when things are finally looking up for farmers, I see that we are facing new regulations. And, once again, these regulations are not crafted specifically to encourage a type of farming that promotes the health and well-being of animals, but a factory model that promotes the health of our exports and the contentment of our trading partners. Rural communities have finally been thrown a bone with the local food movement. Let’s not crush it by introducing new regulations that will needlessly cost small farmers more – for selling meat to their neighbours! If we want to increase traceability, how about encouraging farmers to sell directly to their customers? What better accountability is there than that? We ought to be celebrating this and bending over backwards to ensure that these farmers are not put out of business with more red tape. This is why I implore you to properly consult with a wide variety of farmers, but particularly small ones. You may also wish to consult consumers. I bet if you asked them, they would rather have policies that favoured chickens raised on pasture than in cages or windowless barns. Please take your time on this consultation and set up actual meetings in communities to interact with farmers and consumers and other stakeholders. Please let me know when and where these meeting will be when you set them up.
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I recently read a transcript from one of my farming heroes, Wendell Berry. He was speaking at a conference in Kentucky regarding the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) that is eerily similar to the new policies proposed for animal health in B.C. I echo Berry’s sentiments and am very concerned about the process being used to bring these policies in. We need more consultation than an online survey. I would like an opportunity to express my concerns in person at a meeting in my community or nearest city. I will leave you with Berry’s words:
The need to trace animals was made by the confined animal industry – which are, essentially, disease breeding operations. The health issue was invented right there. The remedy is to put animals back on pasture, where they belong. The USDA is scapegoating the small producers to distract attention from the real cause of the trouble. Presumably these animal factories are, in a too familiar phrase, “too big to fail.”
This is the first agricultural meeting I’ve ever been to in my life that was attended by the police. I asked one of them why he was there and he said: “Rural Kentucky.” So thank you for your vote of confidence in the people you are supposed to be representing. (applause) I think the rural people of Kentucky are as civilized as anybody else.
But the police are here prematurely. If you impose this program on the small farmers, who are already overburdened, you’re going to have to send the police for me. I’m 75 years old. I’ve about completed my responsibilities to my family. I’ll lose very little in going to jail in opposition to your program – and I’ll have to do it. Because I will be, in every way that I can conceive of, a non-cooperator.
I understand the principles of civil disobedience, from Henry Thoreau to Martin Luther King. And I’m willing to go to jail to defend the young people who, I hope, will still have a possibility of becoming farmers on a small scale in this supposedly free country. Thank you very much. (applause, cheers)
Yours truly,
[Name]
Farmer, [Farm Name]
[Address]
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Please send a copy of your letter to CAS at: info@cowichanfarmers.org or: Cowichan Ag Society, 5855 Clements Street, Duncan, B.C. V9L 3W2
If you have a few extra minutes, please also send a copy of your letter to your local newspaper, news radio and/or TV station.