The Editor:

There seems to be confusion about the Federation of Agriculture’s desire to have a “one voice for farmers” organization. Let me say that this is absolutely possible. It would be a great thing for enhancing farmer power when it comes to the agriculture policy from Ottawa. Right now Canada has a trade policy, but no real agricultural policy.

If we have One organization however , it has to insure the rights of all farmers to have a democratic voice. You can’t just be in love with the thought of all that power.

All farmers and types of farmers must have equality when it comes to policy and decision making. The goals of agriculture should be moral, ethical, and sustainable, and farmers should work with each other and not capitalize off each other.

Having said all this , all farmers can be under one organization right away, absolutely. They can all sign up for the National Farmer’s Union. We already have the same structure in place as the UPA in Quebec. We are a union just like they are.

As far as the need to study a merger of the NFU and the Federation, forget it. Maybe you should do a serious study into how to improve farm incomes.