"You in the media are all alike," began an urban reader's rant that came in through the mailbox last week.
The writer went on to complain that the press has no business reporting that farmers are making more money this year when she personally knows many farmers who are still struggling to make ends meet.
Aside from pleading "not guilty," it's hard to know how best to respond -- except with a question. What is wrong with farmers making money?
Judging from the mortified reaction from the farming community to the recent farm cash receipts data released by Statistics Canada, the subject of more profit potential in farming is as taboo as speaking the bad guy's name in the Harry Potter series.
Sometimes even a passing reference in articles to the rather promising crop commodity prices this year is enough to prompt irate phone calls from farm readers who accuse the reporter of making farmers out to be rich or something.
Some have even complained that such reports tip off the input suppliers, who will raise their prices accordingly. It would be nice if the major suppliers obtained all of their market information from the Manitoba Co-operator, but it's quite likely the secret is already out.
For the record, Statistics Canada says Canadian farm cash receipts during the first six months of 2007 reached a record $8.4 billion, 15.5 per cent higher than the previous record and a full 25.6 per cent more than what farmers received during the same period last year.
Manitoba farm cash receipts saw the largest increase nationally, jumping 23.2 per cent to $2.139 billion. Current commodity prices, with the long-undervalued wheat hitting record highs in recent weeks, would suggest the incoming cash could be just as good. That should make harvest a bit more fun.
The prevailing message in all this is -- things are finally starting to look up. Thanks to increasing interest in biofuels, greater demand for food commodities and troubled crops elsewhere, farmers around here might finally experience decent returns.
That's good news isn't it? When corporations record better returns, shareholders celebrate, CEO's get bonuses and share values rise.
Mention better returns related to farming, however, and the farm policy organizations immediately kick into high gear defending farmers' image as suffering martyrs of the land.
"Essentially, farmers are very little better off, if any," Keystone Agricultural Producers president David Rolfe told a reporter recently. "It leads to a whole bunch of misconceptions about agriculture being well off and it's certainly not when we're faced with a whole slew of increased costs that have offset any rising commodity and livestock prices."
He has a point. Farm cash receipts record the amount of money coming into an operation, not the expense payments flowing out. A more accurate reflection of actual wealth creation on farms is the net farm receipts. Those have tracked a flat or declining line since the early 1970s while farm cash receipts and expenses have risen side-by-side on a 45 degree angle. Skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer prices have been a huge draw on the expense side in recent years.
But only days after highlighting the high cost of farming, KAP was also defending farmers' right to continue burning field residues, a practice that is not only controversial and hazardous to the public, but which sends hundreds of dollars per field up in smoke through lost soil fertility. Those losses not only affect the next year's fertilizer bill, but diminish the soil's resilience over the long term.
It sends a confusing signal, particularly to people who couldn't get to work last week because of closed highways and poor visibility. The natural question it raises is whether farmers choose to farm expensively.
And what do farmers do when prices hit a high? They increase production, which drives down prices and increases expenses. In farming culture, the prospect of profitability is almost an embarrassment. Sometimes it is even scorned.
One of the most memorable phone calls in 26 years of farm reporting came in from a dairy farmer, a woman in tears over jibes her family faced in their home community because their sector is structured to compensate their relentlessly hard work. Their relatively secure incomes are not without sacrifice. They operate within a highly disciplined production and marketing environment.
One of biggest criticisms of supply management in this country is that the farmers involved receive their costs plus a return. Most businesses wouldn't have it any other way. Industry averages aside, there are farmers out there who make money, some years more than others. Further, this is shaping up to be a good year for farmers. That is a fact that should be celebrated, because farming is a tough business in which to make money.
Guess it's time to unplug the phone.
Laura Rance is editor of the Manitoba Co-operator. She can be reached at 792-4382 or by email: laura@fbcpublishing.com
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