Surprise ... surprise!!!!

I just received my monthly Macleans for March 2008. Now, I have been hard on Macleans on occasion, because, frankly, some of the articles deserved to be left unwritten, as they were so unbalanced and biased, it was a dis-service to all, including their urban audience, that they ever saw the light of day.

This month is a surprise, though and not a bad thing in my mind at all. Front and centre on the cover:

Rampant demand. Sudden shortages. Riots over prices. The world food crisis is starting to hit home.

YOUR GROCERY BILL IS ABOUT TO HURT

The article is written by Charlie Gillis and is a very in depth and thoughtful look into a number of issues. I'll leave it to you to decide on the level of importance you can attach to them. One very big surprise is the credit Gillis gives to the National Farmers Union. The Union did write to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and for that they should get major kudos. It was a piece of far sightedness we all could use.

Gillis also goes into some surprising statistics that our own farmers and farm organizations should be looking at and thinking about. Earlier this week reports from some interesting sources (prisonplanet.com) were speculating on similar announcements from the FAO. I am a bit surprised that the Macleans article even saw the light of day.

As well, this week CTV's Pat Foran reported at length about the increasing cost of wheat for pasta, although he used the term, food inflation.

As a consumer and parent the issues can be chilling. How many can grow their own food? What about preserving it yourself? If we are in fact, teetering on the edge ........ what is our own government doing to protect our people from such possible, frightening outcomes?

Many of us in agriculture are aware of the history around farming and food production. Society as a whole is not. It was only the efficiency and productiveness on the nations farms that freed society to pursue other avenues of wealth and built the societies we have to-day.

I hope you all take a long hard look at the article and use this profile to urge our government to take real Food Sovereignty very seriously. Perhaps you will have willing voices to help spread the word.-CG