There is frustration and concern about a lack of progress by Provincial and Federal Agricultural Ministers.
A meeting last week in Toronto resulted in only a commitment from the ministers to meet again to talk about the challenges facing the agricultural sector.
That did not sit well with the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition .
Thronbury area apple producer Brian Gilroy is also the President of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
He says their safety net programs have been watered down to the point where they don’t work for the majority of people.
He says they are not delivering funds to farmers who are in desperate need.
Gilroy also is critical of some of the policy decisions made by the provincial government which he says is driving some people out of business and if something is not done soon, jobs will be lost and certain crops just wont be grown in Ontario.
He says one of their main concerns is that some of these farm programs are designed to work on a margin basis, and when those margins are eroded because of poor prices, then these programs simply don’t kick in.
Gilroy says the coalition just wanted the Agriculture Ministers to tweak these programs to make them more responsive to the realities that are happening now.
He says they have some of the answers and are upset that the Agriculture Ministers are not taking advantage to the farm communities expertise to help move the industry forward and help lead the province out of the economic downturn.
