The market is failing to return a fair and adequate share of the consumer dollar to farmers. And it is failing to allocate to farmers a reasonable return on labour, management, and equity from our agri-food system's huge revenue stream. In Canada, federal and provincial governments have chosen not to protect farm families from this market failure. Federal agricultural spending has fallen to half the levels of ten years ago. The result is widespread bankruptcy, the rapid loss of family farms, decimated rural communities, and damaged regional economies.
Market failure is apparent to anyone who wishes to look.
Moreover, it is entirely predictable. It is a direct result of dramatic market power imbalances between agri-food industry multinationals and the family farms that must do business with these firms. Most executives, journalists, economists, and politicians point toward false problems and encourage farmers toward false solutions. Farmers are encouraged to blame themselves, farmers across the border or across the sea, their marketing agencies, their own government, or foreign governments.