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JANUARY 5, 2012 | WWW.PRODUCER.COM | THE WESTERN PRODUCER
NEWS
INTERNATIONAL FARM POLITICS | NEW GROUP
New organization needed to speak for world’s farmers Representing agriculture at trade meetings | World Farmers’ Organization has 29 country members and more waiting in the wings BY BARRY WILSON OTTAWA BUREAU
GENEVA — A new international farm organization is forming out of the ashes of last year’s collapse of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers. Canada is leading the way. The World Farmers’ Organization has been created with a head office in Rome and former North Dakota National Farmers Union president Robert Carlson as the first president. A key driver behind the new organization was the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and president Ron
Bonnett, who served as interim president until the founding meeting in mid-December. Bonnett, who remains the North American representative on the board of directors, helped create the working group that led to the proposal for a new organization. The CFA is the sole Canadian member and has budgeted $25,000 annually for the organization. The WFO already has 29 country members with others waiting in the wings, Bonnett said during a December meeting of the World Trade Organization in Geneva. Earlier, he had been in Rome for the
RON BONNETT WORLD FARMERS’ ORGANIZATION
founding WFO meeting. Bonnett said a new international farm organization is needed to deal with international organizations that make policies affecting farmers and
need farmer input. “One of the things we are finding is that international organizations like the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) and the World Bank are really reaching out to us,” he said. “They make policies that affect national governments, and if there is not an organization like ours, someone else will step up to say they speak for farmers and that is not necessarily good for us.” IFAP, which was created in 1946, imploded last year under the weight of budget de deficits and political dysfunction.
Canadian far m leaders often served as president, and Canadian David King was the longtime Parisbased secretary general. Canadian Jack Wilkinson stepped down in 2008 after six years as IFAP president and was replaced by Zambian farm leader Ajay Vashee, the first developing country president. King was soon fired and IFAP found itself in financial difficulty before it was put into receivership last year. Bonnett said that while the international farm organization does not always have a high profile, it plays a role at important international talks. “After the demise of IFAP, a lot of groups came forward claiming to speak for farmers to international organizations,” he said. “They were often left-wing groups that represented organic, wanted to get corporate out of farming, wanted to press food self-sufficiency. These are part of the debate, but they do not represent the full picture of farm interests and this was the kind of advice they were getting.” The CFA contribution, set by a WFO formula, is just one-third of the dues it paid to IFAP. The total WFO budget for the first year is $500,000. The decision was made to locate the head office in Rome because of the presence of FAO, the World Food Programme and other international agricultural programs. Bonnett said the WFO will have stronger governance and financial oversight to avoid the problems that brought the IFAP down. “With good governance rules, you can have a bad president but there is a check on that.”
REGIONAL PLANNING | ALBERTA
Feedback wanted on land use BY BARB GLEN
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A deadline for input into a southern Alberta land use plan has been extended to April 30 from its original deadline of Dec. 19. The Alberta government said Dec. 16 in a news release that it would allow additional feedback on the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan because of concerns about property rights that might affect the plan. The province is conducting open houses in January to discuss property rights concerns after bills passed by former premier Ed Stelmach’s government caused widespread unease among rural landowners about property rights protection. The South Saskatchewan regional plan was submitted to government in March. It outlines ways to address water supply, economic development and conservation in the southern Alberta region but was based on land use bills in force at the time that may be changed pending public input. The public input period for a regional plan for the Lower Athabasca region of northeastern Alberta has also been extended. For more information, visit www. landuse.alberta.ca/Pages/default. aspx. access=subscriber section=news,none,none